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Section 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/aspectsofreligioOOjast 


THE  AMERICAN  LECTURES 
ON  THE  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS. 


I.  Buddhism.— The  History  and  Literature  of  Bud- 
dhism.    By  T.  W.  Rhys-Davids,  LL.D.,  Ph.D. 

n.  Primitive  Religions. — The  Religions  of  Primitive 
Peoples.    By  D.  G.  Brinton,  A.M.,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Sc.D. 

III.  Israel. — Jewish  Religions.  Life  after  the  Exile. 
By  Rev.  T.  K.  Cheyne,  M.A.,  D.D. 

IV.  Israel. — Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile.  By  Karl 
BUDDE,    D.D. 

V.  Ancient  Egyptians. — The  Religion  of  the  Ancient 
Egyptians.     By  G.  Steindorff,  Ph.D. 

VI.  Religion  in  Japan. — The  Development  of  Re- 
ligion in  Japan.     By  George  W.  Knox,  D.D. 

VII.  The  Veda.— The  Religion  of  the  Veda.  By 
Maurice  Bloomfield,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

VIII.  Babylonia  and  Assyria. — Aspects  of  Religious 
Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria.  By  Morris 
Jastrow,  Jr.,  Ph.D. 


G.    P.    PUTNAM'S   SONS 

NEW   YORK   AND    LONDON 


AMERICAN    LECTURES    ON    THE 
HISTORY    OF    RELIGIONS 

NINTH  SERIES,   1910 


Aspects  of  Religious  Belief 
and  Practice  in 
Babylonia  and  Assyrmr^^fof 


'*      NOV  8  1911      * 

Morris  Jastrow,  Jr.,  Ph.D. 

Professor  of  Semitic  Languages  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 


With  54  Illustrations  and  a  Map 

and 

Chronological  Lists 

of  the 

Rulers  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

^be  Iknicfter&ockec  iprees 

191 1 


Copyright,  igix 

BY 

MORRIS  JASTROW,  Jr. 


Ube  ftnicftecbocfter  Preee,  Dew  tforft 


HORACE  HOWARD  FURNESS 

TO  WHOSE  LOVING  AND  ENDURING  FRIENDSHIP 

I  OWE  MORE  THAN  WORDS  CAN  TELL, 
THIS  VOLUME  IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED. 

"  More  is  thy  due,  than  more  than  all  can  pay." 


PREFACE ' 

WHEN  the  American  Committee  for  Lectures  on 
the  History  of  ReHgions  kindly  invited  me 
to  deliver  a  course  of  lectures  under  its  auspices,  I 
hesitated  at  first  for  various  reasons,  but  was  led  to 
accept  by  the  consideration  that  the  invitation  would 
afford  an  opportunity  to  summarise  in  a  popular  and 
(I  trust)  a  readable  form  the  results  of  recent  re- 
searches on  some  aspects  of  the  religion  of  Babylonia 
and  Assyria,  in  which  I  was  privileged  to  have  a  share. 
The  importance  of  the  extensive  omen  literature  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria,  very  imperfectly  known  until 
a  few  years  ago,  is  now  generally  recognised,  and  I 
feel  that  no  apology  is  necessary  for  devoting  two 
of  the  lectures  to  the  two  chief  aspects  of  this  litera- 
ture— divination  through  the  liver,  and  divination 
through  the  observation  of  the  heavens.  Both  forms 
of  divination  have  wide  and  significant  bearings  on 
the  general  history  of  religious  rites  and  beliefs. 
Through  hepatoscopy,  a  definite  link  has  been  estab- 
lished between  the  Euphratean  culture  and  the 
Etruscan  civilisation,  with  the  Hittites,  apparently, 
as  the  mediating  factor.     The  Babylonian  astrologers 


vi  Preface 

are  the  **  fathers  "  of  all  who  seek  to  read  the  future 
in  the  stars;  and  as  I  write  these  lines,  Prof.  Franz 
Cumont's  valuable  paper  on  "Babylon  und  die 
Griechische  Astronomie"  (Neue  Jahrbiicher  fiir  das 
Klassische  AUertum,  i  Abt.,  Band  XXVII. ,  pp.  i-io) 
comes  to  hand,  to  emphasise  the  debt  that  even  Greek 
astronomy  owes  to  the  results  obtained  by  the  Baby- 
lonian priests,  actuated  though  these  were,  at  least 
up  to  a  late  period,  solely  by  the  supposed  bearings  of 
the  study  of  the  movements  of  heavenly  bodies  on 
human  destinies. 

So  steady  is  the  increase  in  the  material  for  the 
study  of  the  Baby  Ionian- Assyrian  religion,  and  so 
unceasing  is  the  activity  of  the  band  of  scholars  in 
this  country  and  Europe  who  are  devoting  them- 
selves to  the  interpretation  of  this  material,  that  it 
becomes  necessary  from  time  to  time  to  recast  our 
views  of  the  pantheon  and  the  cult.  I  have,  there- 
fore, availed  myself  of  this  opportunity  to  present 
in  outline  a  picture  of  the  chief  deities  in  the  systema- 
tised  pantheon,  with  due  regard  to  the  manner  in 
which  the  original  traits  of  these  deities  were  over- 
laid with  the  attributes  accorded  to  them  because  of 
the  political  position  assumed  by  the  centres  in  which 
they  were  worshipped.  While  many  problems  still 
remain  to  be  worked  out,  I  venture  to  hope  that  my 
presentation  of  the  pantheon  will  be  regarded  as  an 
advance  upon  previous  attempts. 


Preface  vii 

Our  knowledge  of  the  local  cults  in  the  earlier 
periods  before  the  tendency  towards  centralisation 
set  in  is  still  very  defective,  but  the  broad  subdivisions 
of  the  cult  are  now  clear ;  and  we  are  also  in  a  much 
better  position  than  some  years  ago  to  sketch  the 
general  character  of  the  temple  architecture  of  both 
Babylonia  and  Assyria,  thanks,  chiefly,  to  the  work 
done  at  Nippur,  Babylon,  and  Kalah-Shergat  (or 
Ashur).  Through  the  Hammurapi  Code,  in  con- 
junction with  the  numerous  business  documents  of 
all  periods,  we  are  able  to  trace  the  development  of 
ethics,  and  the  application  of  ethical  principles  to  the 
practical  affairs  of  life.  So  far  as  the  limitations  of  a 
single  lecture  allow,  I  have  tried  to  do  this  in  the 
concluding  chapter,  which  may  therefore  be  regarded 
as  an  illustration  of  the  actual  influence  exerted  by 
the  religion  upon  the  life  and  thought  of  the  people. 
Throughout,  I  have  kept  in  mind  to  distinguish 
between  the  popular  religion  and  the  somewhat  ar- 
tificial form  given  to  it  in  the  official  cult,  largely 
through  the  attempts  of  the  priests  to  bring  the 
current  beliefs  into  accord  with  theological  specula- 
tions, unfolded  in  the  schools  attached  to  the  temples. 
How  far  I  have  succeeded  in  doing  so,  it  will  be  for 
others  to  judge,  but  I  am  convinced  that  for  a  proper 
understanding  of  the  religion  under  discussion,  we 
must  differentiate  more  sharply  than  has  hitherto 
been  done  between  these  two  currents  of  thought — 


viii  Preface 

the  popular  and  the  speculative.  In  the  views  of 
life  after  death,  the  contrast  between  what  the  people 
believed  and  the  way  in  which  the  priests  partly- 
justified  and  partly  modified  these  beHefs  is  particu- 
larly instructive. 

The  illustrations  have  been  carefully  chosen  and 
will,  I  trust,  aid  in  elucidating  the  subject.  Special 
attention  should  be  called  to  the  explanatory  com- 
ments added  to  the  illustrations  in  which  I  have 
endeavored  to  give  the  data  necessary  for  their 
interpretation. 

My  profound  thanks  are  due  to  my  esteemed  friend 
Prof.  C.  H.  Toy  for  the  careful  revision  that  he  has 
given  to  my  manuscript,  in  the  course  of  which  he  made 
a  large  number  of  valuable  suggestions,  bearing  both 
on  the  matter  and  on  the  form  of  presentation,  while 
that  dearest  and  rarest  of  men,  who  has  been  my 
"guide,  philosopher,  and  friend"  during  my  career, 
and  who  has  permitted  me  to  grace  this  volume  by 
inscribing  his  name  on  the  dedication  page,  has  added 
to  the  heavy  debt  that  I  already  owe  him — a  debt  too 
large  for  me  to  even  pay  the  interest  thereof — by 
submitting  the  manuscript  to  a  final  and  critical 
examination.  How  much  this  has  meant,  those  who 
know  Dr.  Furness  need  not  be  told. 

My  thanks  are  also  due  to  Dr.  George  B.  Gordon, 
the  efficient  director  of  the  Museum  of  Archaeology 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  for  his  kindness 


Preface 


IX 


in  placing  at  my  disposal  the  Museum  material  for  a 
large  number  of  the  illustrations  in  this  volume. 

The  index  is  the  work  of  my  pupil,  Dr.  B.  B. 
Charles,  Research  Fellow  in  Semitic  Languages  at 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  to  whom  I  am  under 
many  obligations  for  the  care,  time,  and  thought  that 
he  has  bestowed  on  the  task. 

My  wife  has,  as  on  former  occasions,  read  proof 
and  assisted  in  various  other  ways  in  the  preparation 
of  the  volume.  Deep  as  are  my  obligations  to  her 
for  this  direct  aid,  what  she  has  done  by  her  loving 
and  continuous  sympathy  with  my  work  has  been  a 
help  and  a  source  of  strength  too  great  (and  too  close 
to  my  heart)  to  be  expressed  in  words 

Lastly,  as  I  write  these  lines  I  recall  with  pleasure 
and  gratitude  the  sympathetic  audiences  that  list- 
ened to  the  story  of  the  long-forgotten  past,  now  so 
largely  restored  to  us.  If  some  of  my  hearers  should 
also  be  among  my  readers,  I  hope  that  the  written 
word  will  strengthen  the  bond  of  sympathy  created 
by  the  spoken  one. 

M.J.,Jr. 

University  of  Pennsylvania, 
March,  I9II. 


ANNOUNCEMENT 

THE  American  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Re- 
ligions are  delivered  under  the  auspices  of  the 
American  Committee  for  Lectures  on  the  History  of 
Religions.  This  Committee  was  organised  in  1892, 
for  the  purpose  of  instituting  "popular  courses  in  the 
History  of  Religions,  somewhat  after  the  style  of  the 
Hibbert  Lectures  in  England,  to  be  delivered  by 
the  best  scholars  of  Europe  and  this  country,  in 
various  cities,  such  as  Baltimore,  Boston,  Brooklyn, 
Chicago,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  others." 

The  terms  of  association  under  which  the  Com- 
mittee exist  are  as  follows : 

1.  The  object  of  this  Association  shall  be  to  pro- 
vide courses  of  lectures  on  the  history  of  religions,  to 
be  delivered  in  various  cities. 

2.  The  Association  shall  be  composed  of  delegates 
from  institutions  agreeing  to  co-operate,  with  such 
additional  members  as  may  be  chosen  by  these 
delegates. 

3.  These  delegates — one  from  each  institution, 
with  the  additional  members  selected — shall  con- 
stitute themselves  a  Council  under  the  name  of  the 


xii  Announcement 

"American  Committee  for  Lectures  on  the  History 
of  Religions." 

4.  The  Council  shall  elect  out  of  its  number  a 
Chairman,  a  Secretary,  and  a  Treasurer. 

5.  All  matters  of  local  detail  shall  be  left  to  the 
co-operating  institution  under  whose  auspices  the 
lectures  are  to  be  delivered. 

6.  A  course  of  lectures  on  some  religion,  or  phase 
of  religion,  from  an  historical  point  of  view,  or  on  a 
subject  germane  to  the  study  of  religions,  shall  be 
delivered  annually,  or  at  such  intervals  as  may  be 
found  practicable,  in  the  different  cities  represented 
by  this  Association. 

7.  The  Council  (a)  shall  be  charged  with  the 
selection  of  the  lecturers,  (b)  shall  have  charge  of  the 
funds,  (c)  shall  assign  the  time  for  the  lectures  in 
each  city,  and  perform  such  other  functions  as  may  be 
necessary. 

8.  Polemical  subjects,  as  well  as  polemics  in  the 
treatment  of  subjects,  shall  be  positively  excluded. 

9.  The  lectures  shall  be  delivered  in  the  various 
cities  between  the  months  of  September  and  June. 

10.  The  copyright  of  the  lectures  shall  be  the 
property  of  the  Association. 

11.  The  compensation  of  the  lecturer  shall  be 
fixed  in  each  case  by  the  Council. 

12.  The  lecturer  shall  be  paid  in  instalments  after 
each  course,  until  he  shall  have  received  half  of  the 


Announcement  xiii 

entire  compensation.  Of  the  remaining  half,  one 
half  shall  be  paid  to  him  upon  delivery  of  the  manu- 
script, properly  prepared  for  the  press,  and  the  second 
half  on  the  publication  of  the  volume,  less  a  deduc- 
tion for  corrections  made  by  the  author  in  the  proofs 
exceeding  15%  of  the  cost  of  the  plates. 

The  Committee  as  now  constituted  is  as  follows: 
Prof.  Crawford  H,  Toy,  Chairman,  7  Lowell  St., 
Cambridge,  Mass.;  Rev.  Dr.  John  P.  Peters,  Treas- 
urer, 227  W.  99th  St.,  New  York  City;  Prof.  Morris 
Jastrow,  Jr.,  Secretary,  248  S.  23rd  St.,  Philadelphia; 
Pa.;  Prof.  Richard  Gottheil,  Colimibia  University, 
New  York  City;  Prof.  Robert  F.  Harper,  University 
of  Chicago,  Chicago,  111.;  Prof.  Paul  Haupt,  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md,.;  Prof.  E.  W. 
Hopkins,  Yale  University,  New  Haven,  Conn. ; 
Prof.  F.  W.  Hooper,  Brooklyn  Institute,.  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.;  Prof.  G.  W.  Knox,  Union  Theological  Semi- 
nary, New  York  City;  Prof.  Edward  Knox  Mitchell, 
Hartford  Theological  Seminary,  Hartford,  Conn.; 
President  F.  K.  Sanders,  Washburn  College,  Topeka, 
Kan.;  Prof,  H.  P.  Smith,  Meadville  Theological 
School,  Meadville,  Pa. 

The  lecturers  in  the  course  of  American  Lec- 
tures on  the  History  of  Religions  and  the  titles  of 
their  volumes  are  as  follows : 

l894-i895:—Prof.  T.  W.  Rhys- Davids,  Ph.D. 
Buddhism. 


xiv  Announcement 

1896-1897:— Prof.  Daniel  G.  Brinton,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples. 
1897-1898:— Rev.  Prof.  T.  K.  Cheyne,  D.D. 

Jewish    Religious   Life    after    the 

Exile. 
1 898-1 899:— Prof.  Karl  Budde,  D.D 

Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile. 
1904-1905: — Prof.  George  Steindorfi,  Ph.D. 

The  ReHgion  of  the  Ancient  Egyp- 
tians. 
1905-1906: — Prof.  George  W.  Knox,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

The  Development   of   Religion  in 

Japan. 
1906-1907: — Prof.     Maurice     Bloomfield,     Ph.D., 

LL.D. 

The  Religion  of  the  Veda. 
1907-1908: — Prof.  A.  W.  Jackson. 

The  Religion  of  Persia.' 
The  present  course  of  lectures,  the  ninth  of  the 
series,  was  delivered  by  Prof.  Morris  Jastrow,  Jr., 
Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Semitic  Languages  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  who  has  devoted  many  years 
of  special  study  to  the  Religion  of  Babylonia  and 

^  This  course,  by  special  arrangement  with  the  Committee, 
will  form  part  of  Prof.  Jackson's  volume  on  the  Religion  of 
Persia  in  the  series  of  "Handbooks  on  the  History  of  Religions," 
edited  by  Prof.  Morris  Jastrow,  Jr.,  and  published  by  Messrs. 
Ginn  &  Company  of  Boston.  The  volume  is  expected  to  appear 
m  1912. 


Announcement  xv 

Assyria.  In  1898  Prof.  Jastrow  published  the  first 
comprehensive  work  on  the  "Religion  of  Babylonia 
and  Assyria"  as  Volume  I.  of  the  "Handbooks  on 
the  History  of  Religions"  edited  by  him.  In  1903 
he  began  the  publication  of  the  revised  German  trans- 
lation, which  is  practically  a  new  work.  The  one 
volume  of  the  English  edition  has  been  enlarged  to 
two  substantial  volumes  in  the  German  form,  in 
order  to  embody  the  additional  material  brought  to 
light  during  the  last  decade.  It  is  the  intention  of 
Prof.  Jastrow  to  follow  the  German  edition  by  a  sup- 
plemental volume,  to  be  published  simultaneously  in 
English  and  German,  on  "The  Temples,  Cult,  and 
Myths  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria."  Besides  a  large 
number  of  papers  on  special  points  connected  with 
the  religious  beliefs  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  or 
with  the  elucidation  of  religious  texts,  Prof.  Jastrow 
is  also  the  author  of  the  article  on  the  "Religion  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria"  in  the  supplemental  volume 
of  Hastings's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible, 

Other  publications  of  Prof.  Jastrow  include  The 
Study  of  Religion,  London,  1901 ;  The  Grammatical 
Works  of  Abu  Zakarijja  Hajjug,  Leiden,  1897;  and 
a  large  number  of  philological  and  archaeological 
articles,  bearing  chiefly  on  Assyrian,  Hebrew,  and 
Arabic,  and  published  in  technical  journals  of  this 
country  and  Europe. 

The  lectures  in  this  course  were  delivered  before 


xvi  Announcement 

the  Lowell  Institute,  University  of  Chicago,  Meadville 
Theological  School,  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
Brooklyn  Institute,  Drexel  Institute,  and  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University. 

John  P.  Peters, 

C.  H.  Toy, 

Committee  on  Publication. 
February,  191 1. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface     v 

Announcement xi 

Lecture  I. — Culture  and  Religion  .  1-62 
Antiquity  of  Civilisation  in  the  Euphrates 
Valley,  2.  Sumerians  and  Akkadians,  3.  Gen- 
eral Character  of  Early  Religion,  12.  Enlil  and 
Nippur,  18.  Rise  of  Semites,  20.  Sargonand 
Naram-Sin,  21.  Ur  Dynasty,  24.  Amorites 
and  Hittites,  15.  First  Dynasty  of  Babylon, 
30.  Hammurapi,  31.  Marduk  as  Head  of  the 
Pantheon,  37.  Rise  of  Assyria,  41.  Ashur- 
banapal's  Library,  46.  Ashur,  Chief  God  of 
Assyria,  50.  Fall  of  Assyria  and  the  Neo- 
Babylonian  Empire,  54-55.  Cyrus'  Conquest 
of  Babylon,  59.  Zoroastrianism  and  Greek 
Culture,  60. 

Lecture  II. — The  Pantheon  .        .        63-142 

Selective  Process,  63.  Enlil,  Chief  God  of 
Nippur,  68.  Enlil  and  Jahweh,  72.  Ninib, 
God  of  Nippur,  75.  Anu,  God  of  Uruk,  81. 
Marduk,  God  of  Babylon,  86.  Ea,  God  of 
Eridu,  88.  Anu,  Enlil  and  Ea,  90.  Nebo,  God 
of  Borsippa,  95.  Monotheistic  Tendency,  103. 
Nergal,  God  of  Cuthah,  106.  Shamash,  God 
of  Sippar,  108.     Sin,  God  of  Ur  and  Harran, 


xviii  Contents 

PAGE 

112.  Adad  or  Ramman,  117.  Ashur,  Chief  God 
of  Assyria,  121.  Goddesses,  124.  Ishtar,  126. 
Ishtar  as  Goddess  of  War,  133.  Ishtar  as 
Goddess  of  Love,  135.     The  Mother  Cult,  141. 

Lecture  IIL — Divination  .  .  .  143-206 
Voluntary  and  Involuntary  Divination,  144. 
Inspection  of  Liver,  147.  The  Liver  as  the 
Seat  of  the  Soul,  148.  Liver,  Heart,  and  Brain, 
151.  The  Sheep's  Liver,  156.  The  bdrH  or 
"Inspector,"  162.  Specimens  of  "Liver  Di- 
vination," 174.  Etruscan  and  Hittite  Hepato- 
scopy,  190.  Greek  and  Roman  Hepatoscopy, 
193.     Other  Forms  of  Divination,  201. 

Lecture  IV. — Astrology         .        .        .     207-264 

Basis  of  Astrology  as  an  Early  Form  of 
Science,  209.  Moon  and  Sun,  211.  The  Five 
Planets,  217. 

Jupiter  =  Marduk 

Venus  =  Ishtar 

Saturn  =  Ninib 

Mars  =  Nergal 

Mercury  =  Nebo 
Constellation  and  Stars,  227.  Weather  Sci- 
ence, 231.  System  of  Astrological  Divination, 
234.  Astrology  and  Astronomy,  251.  Persian 
and  Greek  Influences,  252.  Greek  and  Medi- 
aeval Astrology,  255. 

Lecture  V. — The  Temples  and  the  Cults.  265-350 
The  Temple  as  the  Dwelling  of  a  Deity,  265. 
Temple  and  Palace,  268.    Temple  Administra- 


Contents  '    xix 


tion  and  Organisation,  273.  Temple  Archives 
and  Temple  Schools,  276.  The  Zikkurats  or 
Temple  Towers,  282.  Omen  Texts,  297.  In- 
cantation Rituals,  299.  Ethical  Spirit  in  In- 
cantation Rituals,  307.  Exorcising  of  Evil 
Spirits,  309.  Water  and  Fire  as  Purifying 
Elements,  312.  Lamentation  Rituals,  319. 
Penitential  Hymns,  327.  Prayers  to  the  Moon- 
God,  333.  Tammuz  Cult,  343.  Ishtar  and 
Tammuz,  347. 

Lecture  VI. — Ethics  and  Life  after  Death. 

351-418 
Primitive  Views  of  Life  after  Death,  351. 
Names  of  the  Nether  World,  354.  The  Nether 
World  in  the  Gilgamesh  Epic,  357.  Methods 
of  Burial,  359.  Fear  of  the  Dead,  362.  Man's 
Forfeiture  of  Immortality,  363.  The  Pantheon 
of  the  Nether  World,  365.  Nergal  and  Eresh- 
kigal,  368.  Ishtar 's  Descent  to  the  Nether 
World,  370.  Absence  of  Ethical  Factor  in  Views 
of  Life  after  Death,  372.  The  Gilgamesh  Epic 
and  Ecclesiastes,  375.  General  View  of  Baby- 
lonian and  Assyrian  Ethics,  377.  Attitude  of 
Rulers,  384.  Ethical  Precepts,  387.  Ethics  of  the 
Hammurapi  Code,  391.  The  Lex  Talionis  in 
the  Code,  394.  Family  Ethics,  396.  Business 
Ethics,  403.  Defects  of  Ethical  System,  408. 
Judgment  of  Hebrew  Prophets,  410.  Baby- 
lonian-Assyrian Influence  on  the  Hebrews,  412. 

Chronological  Lists                 .        .        .        .419 
Index 449 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Pl.       I.     Map  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  show- 
ing sites  of  principal  cities. 

Frontispiece 

Pl.      2 .     Sumerian  Types — Ur  Nina,  patesi  of 

Lagash  and  his  family  (c.  2975  B.C.)         8 

Pl.      3.     Gudea,  patesi  of  Lagash  (c.  2350  B.C.)       13 

Pl.      4.     Specimen  of  Eariy  Babylonian  Art  .15 
Stone   Libation   Vase   of   Gudea, 
patesi  of  Lagash  (c.  2350  B.C.). 

Pl.       5.     Specimens  of  Eariy  Babylonian  Art.       16 
Fig.  I .     Silver  Vase  of  Entemena, 
patesi  of  Lagash  {c.  2850  B.C.). 
Fig.  2.     Sculptured  Base. 

Pl.  6-7.     Seal  Cylinders  of  various  periods     17-18 

Pl.       8.     Stele  of  Naram-Sin,  king  of  Agade 

{c.  2500  B.C.)      ...         .22 

Pl.      9.     Bas-relief  of  Naram-Sin  .         .       23 

Pl.     10.     Semitic  Types         .         ...       32 
Fig.  I.     Portraits  of  Hammurapi, 
king  of  Babylonia  (c.1958-1916 

B.C.). 

Fig.  2.     Assyrian  Type. 


xxii  Illustrations 


Pl.     II.     Sargon,kingof  Assyria (72 1-705  B.C.), 

with  high  official  ...       44 

Pl.     12.     Esarhaddon,  king  of  Assyria  (680-669 

B.C.),  with  two  royal  prisoners      .       46 

Pl.  13.  Ashurbanapal,  king  of  Assyria 
(668-626  B.C.),  with  his  queen 
in  the  garden  of  the  palace  at 
Nineveh     .....       48 

Pl.     14.     Types   of   Enlil,    the    chief    God   of 

Nippur,  and  his  consort  Ninlil      .       69 

Pl.     15.     Types  of  Gods         ....       92 
Fig.  I.     Conflict  of  Marduk  with 

the  monster  Tiamat. 
Fig.  2.     Marduk,  the  chief  God  of 

Babylon  and  head  of  the  later 

Babylonian  Pantheon. 
Fig.  3.  Adad  (or  Ramman) ,  the  God 

of  storms,  thunder,  and  lightning. 

Pl.     16.     Fig.  I.    The  sun-god  Shamash,  seated 

in  his  shrine        .  .  .  .109 

Fig.  2.    Clay  model,  representing  the 

cult  of  the  sun-god  (Susa)         .      109 

Pl.     17.     Types  of  Gods.   Fig.  i.   Seal  Cylinder 

showing  Sin  the  moon-god  .  .      113 

Fig.  2.    Seal  Cylinder,  showing  Ea, 
the  God  of  water,  chief  deity  of 

Eridu 113 

Fig.  3.     Procession  of  Gods  .     113 


Illustrations  xxiii 


Pl.     i8.     Fig.  I.  Symbols  of  Ashur,  the  chief 

God  of  Assyria  .  .  .121 

Fig.  2 .  Votive  Statuettes  from  Lagash     121 

Pl.     19.     Types  of  the  Goddess  Ishtar     .         -137 
Fig.  I .  Ishtar  as  the  goddess  of  war. 
Fig.  2.  Ishtar,  the  mother  goddess. 
Fig.  3.  Ishtar,  the  goddess  of  love. 

Pl.  20.  Fig.  I.  Drawingof  sheep's  liver,  with 
Latin  and  Babylonian  terms  for 
chief  parts  .  .  .  .181 

Fig.  2.  Omen  School  Tablet  from 
Ashurbanapal's  Library,  showing 
the  finger-shaped  appendix  to 
upper  lobe  of  liver       .  .  .181 

Pl.     21.     Fig.  I.  Clay  model  of  sheep's  liver 

(Babylonian,  c.  2000  B.C.)      .  .      191 

Fig.  2.  Bronze  model  of  liver  (Etrus- 
can, c.  3d  century  B.C.)       .  .      191 

Pl.     22.     Boundary  Stones,   showing  symbols 

of  the  Gods         ....     230 

Pl.     23.     Fig.    I.  The   two   Zikkurats   of  the 

Anu-Adad  Temple  at  Ashur  .     291 

Fig.  2.  Stage- tower  at  Samarra       .     291 

Pl.     24.     Fig.  I.  Plan  of  the  Temple  of  Enlil 

at  Nippur  ....     293 

Fig.  2 .  Plan  of  the  Anu-Adad  Temple 
at  Ashur    .....     293 


xxiv  Illustrations 


Pl.     25.     Fig.  I.  Exorcising  Demons  of  Disease     309 
Fig.  2.  Types  of  Demons  .  .     309 

Pl.  .26.  Fig.  I.  Ashurbanapal,  king  of  Assyria 
(668-626  B.C.),  in  a  lion  hunt,  and 
pouring  a  libation  over  four  lions 
killed  in  the  hunt         ...  .     318 

Fig.    2.    Kneeling   Winged    Figures 
before  the  Sacred  Tree         .  .318 

Pl.     2'].     Winged  Figure  with  Palm  Branch  and 

Spotted  Deer      .  .  .  .     339 

Pl.     28.     Fig.  I.  Votive    Tablet    of    Ur-Enlil, 

patesi  of  Nippur  (c.  3000  B.C.)       .     340 
Fig.  2.    Babylonian  Type  of  Gilga- 
mesh,  the  Hero  of  the  Babylonian 
.     Epic.  .     •     .  .  .  .340 

Pl..     29.     Votive  offerings  from  Lagash   .  .     341 

Pl.     30.     Fig.  I.  Lion  of  Babylon  .  .     344 

Fig.  2.  Dragon  of  Babylon  .     344 

Pl.     31.     Stele  of  Eannatum,  patesi  (and  king) 

of  Lagash  (c.  2930  B.C.)        .  .     360 

Fig.   I.  Mutilation  of  the  Dead. 
Fig.  2.  Dead  arranged  in  rows  for 

burial. 
Fig.  3.  Burial  of  Dead. 

Pl.     32.     Babylonian  Coffins ....     362 
Fig.  I.  .  Eariier     Type — showing 
'.  .     bath-tub  shape. 

Fig.  2.  Later  Type — slipper-shaped 
coffins. 


Illustrations  xxv 


Pl.     33.     Assyrian    Type    of    Gilgamesh,    the 

Hero  of  the  Babylonian  Epic        .     374 

Pl.  34.  Code  of  Hammurapi,  king  of  Baby- 
lonia {c.  1958-1916  B.C.)       .  .     392 


Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and 
Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 


LECTURE  I 


Errata 

p.  432,  1.  2.     The  first  word  should  read  Ur-Pasag. 

p.  436,  1.  9.     For  Aytim  II,  read  Agum  II. 

p.   439,   1.    9.     For   Nabu-shumlibur,   read   Nebo-   -turer 
shumlibur.  'es  on 

the  religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  would  have  been 
comparatively  simple.  He  could  have  told  all  that 
was  known  or  that  he  knew  in  a  single  lecture,  and 
could  have  devoted  the  remaining  lectures  to  what 
he  did  not  know— an  innocent  form  of  intellectual 
amusement,  sometimes  indulged  in  by  lecturers  of 
all  times.  During  the  past  five  or  six  decades,  how- 
ever, the  material  for  the  study  has  grown  to  such  an 
extent  that  it  is  no  longer  possible,  even  were  it 
desirable,  to  present  the  entire  subject  in  a  single 
course  of  lectures.'  It  is  my  purpose,  therefore,  in 
'  This  full  treatment  has  already  been  furnished  by  the  author 
X 


i>\mA3. 


Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and 
Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 


LECTURE  I 

CULTURE  AND   RELIGION 


FIFTY  or  sixty  years  ago  the  task  of  a  lecturer 
called  upon  to  deliver  a  course  of  six  lectures  on 
the  religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  would  have  been 
comparatively  simple.  He  could  have  told  all  that 
was  known  or  that  he  knew  in  a  single  lecture,  and 
could  have  devoted  the  remaining  lectures  to  what 
he  did  not  know — an  innocent  form  of  intellectual 
amusement,  sometimes  indulged  in  by  lecturers  of 
all  times.  During  the  past  five  or  six  decades,  how- 
ever, the  material  for  the  study  has  grown  to  such  an 
extent  that  it  is  no  longer  possible,  even  were  it 
desirable,  to  present  the  entire  subject  in  a  single 
course  of  lectures.^     It  is  my  purpose,  therefore,  in 

'  This  full  treatment  has  already  been  furnished  by  the  author 

I 


2     Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

the  present  course  to  restrict  myself  to  setting  forth 
the  more  salient  features  in  the  beliefs  and  prac- 
tices of  a  religion  of  antiquity  that  well  merits  the 
designation — remarkable.  Its  great  age  is  of  itself 
sufficient  to  call  forth  respect  and  interest.  Although 
the  civilisation  that  once  flourished  in  the  region  of 
the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  is  not  so  ancient  as  not 
many  years  ago  it  was  fondly  supposed  to  be 
by  scholars  whose  enthusiasm  outran  their  judg- 
ment,^ yet  we  may  safely  say  that  three  thousand 
years  before  our  era,  civilisation  and  religion  in  the 
Euphrates  Valley  had  reached  a  high  degree  of 
development. 

At  that  remote  period  some  of  the  more  important 
centres  had  already  passed  the  zenith  of  their  glory. 
Since  thecourse  of  civilisation  in  this  region  flowed  from 
south  to  north,  it  follows  that  the  cities  of  the  south 
are  older  than  those  of  the  northern  part  of  the  val- 

in  his  work,  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  (Boston,  1898), 
to  which,  and  to  the  enlarged  and  rewritten  German  edition 
{Die  Religion  Bahyloniens  und  Assyriens,  2  vols.,  Giessen,  1905- 
191 1),  which  gives  a  practically  complete  view  of  the  material, 
the  reader  is  referred  for  details.  In  the  German  edition  the 
myths  and  legends  and  the  cult  have  not  been  dealt  with.  The 
writer  proposes  to  do  this  in  a  separate  work,  to  be  published 
simultaneously  in  English  and  German. 

'It was  claimed,  e.g.,  that  the  foundation  of  the  city  of  Nip- 
pur could  be  referred  to  7000  years  B.C.,  but  inscriptions  that 
were  at  first  ascribed  to  ca.  4500  B.C.  are  now  dated  with  more 
accuracy  at  ca.  2500  B.C.  See  Meyer,  Geschichle  des  Altertums, 
i.,  2,  p.  457. 


Culture  and  Religion  3 

ley;  and  this  assumption  is  fully  confirmed  by  the 
results  of  excavations,  as  well  as  by  historical  data 
now  at  our  disposal.  The  Babylonians  themselves 
recognised  this  distinction  between  the  south  and 
the  north,  designating  the  former  as  Sumer  (more 
correctly  Shumer,  though  we  shall  use  the  simpler 
form) — which  will  at  once  recall  the  "plain  of  Shinar  " 
in  the  Biblical  story  of  the  building  of  the  tower ^ — 
and  the  latter  as  Akkad.  The  two  in  combination 
cover  what  is  commonly  known  as  Babylonia,  but 
Sumer  and  Akkad  were  at  one  time  as  distinct  from 
each  other  as  were  in  later  times  Babylonia  and 
Assyria.  They  stand,  in  fact,  in  the  same  geo- 
graphical relationship  to  one  other  as  do  the  latter; 
and  it  is  significant  that  in  the  title  "King  of  Sumer 
and  Akkad,"  which  the  rulers  of  the  Euphrates  Val- 
ley, from  a  certain  period  onward,  were  fond  of  as- 
suming to  mark  their  control  of  both  south  and  north, 
it  is  Sumer,  the  designation  of  the  southern  area, 
which  always  precedes  Akkad. 

I  Genesis,  chap.  xi.  The  circumstance  that  in  the  Biblical 
story  of  the  dispersion  of  mankind,  Shinar  and  not  Akkad  or 
Babylon,  is  the  designation  of  the  Euphrates  Valley  is  a  valuable 
indication  of  the  antiquity  of  the  kernel  of  the  tradition,  even 
though,  in  its  present  form,  representing,  as  it  does,  the  combin- 
ation of  two  folk-tales,  one  in  regard  to  the  building  of  a  city 
(Babylon),  the  other  in  regard  to  the  building  of  a  tower,  it 
betrays  its  late  redaction.  See  an  article  by  the  writer,  "The 
Tower  of  Babel,"  The  Independent,  1905,  vol.  Ivii.,  pp.  822- 
826. 


4    Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

More  important,  however,  than  any  geographical 
distinction  is  the  ethnological  contrast  presented  by 
Sumerians  and  Akkadians.  To  be  sure,  the  desig- 
nations themselves,  applied  in  an  ethnic  sense,  are 
purely  conventional ;  but  there  is  no  longer  any  doubt 
of  the  fact  that  the  Euphrates  Valley  from  the  time 
that  it  looms  up  on  the  historical  horizon  is  the 
seat  of  a  mixed  population.  The  germ  of  truth  in 
the  time-honoured  Biblical  tradition,  that  makes  the 
plain  of  Shinar  the  home  of  the  human  race  and  the 
seat  of  the  confusion  of  languages,  is  the  recollection 
of  the  fact  that  various  races  had  settled  there,  and 
that  various  languages  were  there  spoken.  Indeed, 
we  should  be  justified  in  assuming  this,  a  priori;  it 
may  be  put  down  as  an  axiom  that  nowhere  does  a 
high  form  of  culture  arise  without  the  commingling  of 
diverse  ethnic  elements.  Civilisation,  like  the  spark 
emitted  by  the  striking  of  steel  on  flint,  is  everywhere 
the  result  of  the  stimulus  evoked  by  the  friction  of 
one  ethnic  group  upon  another.  Egyptian  culture 
is  the  outcome  of  the  mixture  of  Semitic  with  Hami- 
tic  elements.  Civilisation  begins  in  Greece  with  the 
movements  of  Asiatic  peoples — partly  at  least  non- 
Aryan — across  the  ^gean  Sea.  In  Rome  we  find 
the  old  Aryan  stock  mixed  with  a  strange  element, 
known  as  Etruscan.  In  modern  times,  France, 
Germany,  and  England  furnish  illustrations  of  the 
process  of  the  commingling  of  diverse  ethnic  elements 


Culture  and  Religion  5 

leading  to  advanced  forms  of  civilisation,  while  in 
our  own  country  the  process  is  proceeding  on  so 
large  a  scale  as  to  have  suggested  to  a  modern 
playwright  the  title  of  "The  Melting  Pot"  for 
a  play,  depicting  a  new  type  of  culture  spring- 
ing from  the  mixture  of  almost  innumerable 
elements. 

A  pure  race,  if  it  exist  at  all  outside  of  the  brain  of 
some  ethnologists,  is  a  barren  race.  Mixed  races, 
and  mixed  races  alone,  bring  forth  the  fruit  that  we 
term  civilisation, — with  social,  religious,  and  intel- 
lectual progress.  Monuments  also  bear  witness,  in 
ethnic  types,  in  costumes,  and  in  other  ways,  to  the 
existence  of  two  distinct  classes  in  the  population  of 
the  Euphrates  Valley — Semites  or  Akkadians,  and 
non-Semites  or  Sumerians.  The  oldest  strongholds 
of  the  Semites  are  in  the  northern  portion,  those  of 
the  Sumerians  in  the  southern.  It  does  not, 
however,  necessarily  follow  that  the  Sumerians 
were  the  oldest  settlers  in  the  valley;  nor  does 
the  fact  that  in  the  oldest  historical  period  they 
are  the  predominating  factor  warrant  the  conclusion. 
Analogy  would,  on  the  contrary,  suggest  that  they 
represent  the  conquering  element,  which  by  its 
admixture  with  the  older  settlers  furnished  the 
stimulus  to  an  intellectual  advance,  and  at  the 
same  time  drove  the  older  Semitic  population 
farther   to   the   north. 


6    Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

We  are  approaching  a  burning  problem  in  regard  to 
which  scholars  are  still  divided,  and  which,  in  some 
of  its  aspects,  is  not  unlike  the  Rabbinical  quibble 
whether  the  chicken  or  the  egg  came  first.  It  is  the 
lasting  merit  of  the  distinguished  Joseph  Halevy  of 
Paris  to  have  diverted  Assyriological  scholarship 
from  the  erroneous  course  into  which  it  was  drifting 
a  generation  ago,  when,  in  the  older  Euphratean 
culture,  it  sought  to  differentiate  sharply  between 
Sumerian  and  Akkadian  elements.^  Pr^erence  was 
given  to  the  non-Semitic  Sumerians,  to  whom  was 
attributed  the  origin  of  the  cuneiform  script.  The 
Semitic  (or  Akkadian)  settlers  were  supposed  to  be 
the  borrowers  also  in  religion,  in  forms  of  govern- 
ment, and  in  civilisation  generally,  besides  adop- 
ting the  cuneiform  syllabary  of  the  Sumerians,  and 
adapting  it  to  their  own  speech.  Hie  Sumer,  hie 
Akkad!  Halevy  maintained  that  many  of  the  feat- 
ures in  this  syllabary,  hitherto  regarded  as  Sumer- 
ian, were  genuinely  Semitic;  and  his  main  contention 
is  that  what  is  known  as  Sumerian  is  merely  an  older 
form  of  Semitic  writing,  marked  by  the  larger  use  of 
ideographs  or  signs  to  express  words,  in  place  of  the 

'  Besides  his  numerous  special  monographs,  Hal^vy's  views 
will  be  found  set  forth  in  the  pages  of  his  periodical,  Revue  Semi- 
tique.  A  survey  of  the  situation  will  also  be  found  in  my  paper, 
"A  New  Aspect  of  the  Sumerian  Question,"  in  the  American 
Journal  of  Semitic  Languages,  vol.  xxii.,  pp.  89-109,  though  since 
then  I  have  somewhat  modified  my  views. 


Culture  and  Religion 


later  method  of  phonetic  writing  wherein  the  signs 
employed  have  syllabic  values.^ 

While  an  impartial  review  of  the  still  active  con- 
troversy demands  the  conclusion  that  Halevy  has  not 
succeeded  in  convincing  scholars  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  a  Sumerian  language,  yet,  in  addition 
to  demonstrating  that,  even  in  its  oldest  phase,  the 
cuneiform  syllabary  contains  unquestionable  Semitic 
elements,  he  has  also  made  it  clear  that  many  texts — 
particularly  those  of  a  religious  character — ,  once  re- 
garded as  Sumerian  originals,  are  Semitic  in  character. 
The  "Sumerian"  form  of  writing  was  intended 
purely  for  the  eye,  and  represented  the  ideographic 
method  of  writing  such  texts,  further  complicated  by 
a  super-layer  of  more  or  less  artificial  devices.  This 
applies  even  to  votive  and  other  inscriptions  of  the 
oldest  period.  To  maintain  in  reply  that  the  pure 
Sumerian  period  lies  still  further  back,  is  to  beg  the 
question. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  existence  of  a  Sumerian 
people  (or  whatever  name  we  may  propose  to  give 
to  the  earliest  non-Semitic   settlers)  being   an   un- 

^  By  the  "ideographic"  method  is  meant  the  use  of  signs  to 
express  words,  whereas  in  the  "phonetic"  method,  the  signs  are 
used  as  syllables  constituting  the  component  parts  of  a  word. 
The  "mixed"  method  emplo^^s  signs  for  words  together  with 
signs  used  as  phonetic  complements.  Recent  researches  appear 
to  show  that  the  Sumerian  already  employs  the  ' '  mixed ' '  method 
to  a  limited  extent. 


8    Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

deniable  fact  in  view  of  the  ethnic  evidence  furnished 
by  the  monuments/  we  must  perforce  assume  that 
there  was  also  a  Sumerian  language;  and  we  are  cer- 
tainly justified  in  looking  for  traces  of  this  language 
in  inscriptions  coming  from  the  strongholds  of  the 
Sumerians.  Making  full  allowance  for  possible, 
or  probable,  Semitic  elements  in  the  oldest  "Sumer- 
ian" inscriptions,  there  yet  remain  many  features 
not  to  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for  on  the  sup- 
position that  they  are  artificial  devices,  introduced 
in  the  course  of  the  adaptation  of  a  hieroglyphic 
script  to  express  greater  niceties  of  thought. 
A  substratum  remains  requiring  the  assumption 
that  side  by  side  with  the  ideographic  method  of 
writing  the  old  Semitic  speech,  developing  in  the 
course  of  time  to  a  phonetic  and  mixed  phonetic- 
ideographic  script,  we  have  also  inscriptions  which 
must  be  regarded  as  non-Semitic,  and  that  likewise 
show  two  varieties — ideographic  and  phonetic  modes 
of  expression. 

But  in  accepting  this  conclusion  we  have  not  yet 
settled  the  question  whether  the  script  is  due  to  the 
Semitic  or  to  the  non-Semitic  settlers.  Like  every 
other  script,  the  cuneiform  characters  revert  to  a 
purely  hieroglyphic  form.     The  pictures  represented, 

^  Gathered  by  Eduard  Meyer  in  his  monograph,  Sumerier 
und  Semiten  in  Babylonien,  Berlin,  1906.  See  also  King,  His- 
tory of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  pp.  40-52. 


PI.  2.     Sumerian  Types,  Ur-Nina,  Patesi  of  Lagash  (c.  3000  B.C.),  and  his 
Family. 

Limestone  votive  tablet  found  at  Telloh  and  now  in  the  Louvre. 
See  De  Sarzec,  Decouvertes  en  Chaldee,  PI.  2  bis,  Fig.  i,  and  pp.  168- 
1 70 ;  Heuzey ,  Catalogue  des  A  ntiqiiites  Chaldce?i7ies,  pp.  96-100.  Two 
similar  votive  tablets  of  this  ruler  and  his  family  have  been  found 
at  Telloh.  One  of  these  is  also  in  the  Louvre;  the  other  in  the 
Museum  at  Constantinople.  See  De  Sarzec  Decouvertes,  PI.  i  bis, 
Fig.  2,  and  PI.  2  bis,  Fig.  i,  pp.  171-172.  Ur-Nini — naked  to  the 
waist — is  represented  in  the  upper  row  with  a  workman's  basket 
on  his  head,  symbolising  his  participation  in  the  erection  of  a 
sacred  edifice.  In  the  accompanying  inscription  he  records  his 
work  at  the  temples  of  Ningirsu  and  of  Nina  and  other  construc- 
tions within  the  temple  area  of  Lagash.  Behind  him  stands  a 
high  official — presumably  a  priest — with  a  libation  cup  in  his  hand, 
and  before  the  king  are  five  of  his  children.  The  lower  row  repre- 
sents the  king  after  the  completion  of  the  work  pouring  a  libation. 
Behind  him  again  the  attendant,  and  before  him  four  other  children. 
The  figure  with  the  basket  on  the  head  became  a  common  form  of 
a  votive  ofifering  (see  PI.  29)  and  persisted  to  the  end  of  the  Assyrian 
empire  as  is  shown  by  the  steles  of  King  Ashurbanapal  and  his 
brother,  Shamash-shumukin  with  such  baskets.  (See  Lehmann, 
Shamash-shumukin,  Leipzig,  1892.) 


Culture  and  Religion  9 

so  far  as  these  have  been  determined,  do  not  carry 
us  outside  of  the  Euphrates  Valley.  A  form  of 
writing  in  the  earliest  pictorial  style  being  applicable 
to  any  language,  it  is  conceivable  that  the  script  of 
the  Euphrates  Valley  may  have  been  used  by  Semites 
and  non-Semites  alike;  or,  in  other  words,  the  pictorial 
representation  of  facts  or  ideas  might  have  been  read 
or  translated  into  either  non-Semitic  Sumerian  or 
Semitic  Akkadian,  using  these  terms  for  the  lan- 
guages of  the  two  ethnic  groups.  The  period  of 
differentiation  would  set  in  when  it  became  necessary 
to  express  thoughts  or  abstract  ideas  more  definitely, 
and  in  nicer  shades  than  is  possible  in  a  purely  pic- 
torial script,  which  has  obviously  definite  limitations. 
Granting  that  the  origin  of  the  Euphratean  civilisa- 
tion is  due  to  the  combination  of  the  Semitic  and 
non-Semitic  elements  of  the  population,  the  script 
would  likewise  be  the  joint  product  of  these  two  ele- 
ments; and  it  is  conceivable  that,  starting  in  this  way, 
writing  should  develop  in  two  directions — one  cal- 
culated to  adapt  the  script  to  express  the  greater 
niceties  of  thought  in  Sumerian,  the  other  to  express 
them  in  Akkadian,  while  both  Sumerian  and  Akkad- 
ian would  retain  many  elements  in  common  in  the 
general  endeavour  to  give  expression  to  thought  in 
writing.  At  the  same  time,  the  two  modes  would  exert 
upon  each  other  an  influence  commensurate  with  the 
general  process  of  mixture  that  gives  to  the  religion 


10  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

and  culture  the  harmonious  combination  of  diverse 
factors.  Some  such  theory  as  this,  which  would 
make  the  developed  script  the  result  of  the  intel- 
lectual activity  of  both  elements  of  the  population, 
and  not  the  exclusive  achievement  of  one  and  adopted 
by  the  other,  may  be  eventually  found  to  satisfy  best 
the  conditions  involved,  though  it  must  be  admitted 
that  as  yet  neither  this  theory  nor  any  other  can  be 
advanced  as  absolutely  definite  and  final.  The  de- 
velopment of  the  script  in  two  directions  would  not 
necessarily  proceed  pari  passu.  The  one  or  the  other 
might  be  accelerated  or  retarded  by  various  factors. 
Throughout  the  different  phases  of  development, 
there  would  always  be  at  each  stage  the  tendency  to 
a  mutual  influence,  until  finally,  with  the  definite  pre- 
dominance in  the  culture  of  one  element — which  in 
the  case  in  question  proved  to  be  the  Semitic, — the 
development  in  one  direction  would  be  arrested, 
while  in  the  other  it  would  proceed  uninterruptedly. 
It  is  perhaps  idle  to  indulge  the  hope  of  ever  being 
able  to  follow  details  of  a  process  so  complicated  as 
the  transformation  of  a  script  from  its  oldest  hiero- 
glyphic aspect  to  a  form  verging  closely  on  an  alpha- 
betic system.  The  task  is  particularly  hopeless  in  the 
case  of  the  cuneiform  script,  because  of  this  com- 
mingling of  Sumerian  with  Akkadian  elements  which 
we  encounter  from  the  beginning.  While,  naturally, 
it  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  further  progress  to- 


Culture  and  Religion  ii 


wards  the  solution  of  the  problem  will  be  made — 
and  indeed  unexpected  material  throwing  light  on 
the  subject  may  at  any  time  be  discovered, — it  is 
safe  to  predict  that  this  progress  will  serve  also  to 
illustrate  still  further  the  composite  character  of 
the  Euphratean  civilisation  as  a  whole. 

II 

The  earliest  historical  period  known  to  us,  which, 
roughly  speaking,  is  from  2800  B.C.,  to  2000  B.C., 
may  be  designated  as  a  struggle  for  political  ascend- 
ency between  the  Sumerian  (or  non-Semitic),  and  the 
Akkadian  (or  Semitic)  elements.  The  strongholds  of 
the  Sumerians  at  this  period  were  in  the  south,  in 
such  centres  as  Lagash,  Kish,  Umma,  Uruk,  Nippur, 
and  Ur,  those  of  the  Semites  in  the  north,  particularly 
at  Agade,  Sippar,  and  Babylon,  with  a  gradual  ex- 
tension of  the  Semitic  settlements  still  farther  north 
towards  Assyria.  It  does  not  follow,  however,  from 
this  that  the  one  element  or  the  other  was  absolutely 
confined  to  any  one  district.  The  circumstance  that 
even  at  this  early  period  we  find  the  same  religious 
observances,  the  same  forms  of  government,  the  same 
economic  conditions  in  south  and  north,  is  a  testi- 
mony to  the  intellectual  bond  uniting  the  two  districts, 
as  also  to  the  two  diverse  elements  of  the  popula- 
tion. The  civilisation,  in  a  word,  that  we  encounter 
at  this  earliest  period  is  neither  Sumerian  nor  Akkad- 


12    Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

ian  but  Sumero- Akkadian,  the  two  elements  being  so 
combined  that  it  is  difficult  to  determine  what  was 
contributed  by  one  element  and  what  by  the  other; 
and  this  applies  to  the  religion  and  to  the  other 
phases  of  this  civilisation,  just  as  to  the  script. 

When  the  curtain  of  history  rises  on  the  scene,  we 
are  long  past  the  period  when  the  Semitic  hordes, 
coming  probably  from  their  homes  in  Arabia, »  and 
the  Sumerians,  whose  origin  is  with  equal  probability 
to  be  sought  in  the  mountainous  regions  to  the  east 
and  north-east  of  the  Euphrates  Valley,^  began  to 
pour  into  the  land.  The  attraction  that  settled 
habitations  in  a  fertile  district  have  for  those  occupy- 
ing a  lower  grade  of  civilisation  led  to  constant  or,  at 
all  events,  to  frequent  reinforcements  of  both  Semites 
and  non-Semites.  The  general  condition  that  pre- 
sents itself  in  the  earliest  period  known  to  us  is  that 
of  a  number  of  principalities  or  little  kingdoms  in  the 
Euphrates  Valley,  grouped  around  some  centre  whose 

^  This  statement  must,  of  course,  be  considered  merely  as  a 
general  one  and  it  is  quite  possible,  and  even  probable,  as  King, 
History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  p.  55,  also  believes,  that  the  first 
permanent  settlements  of  Semites  may  have  been  made  by 
groups  entering  the  Euphrates  Valley  from  the  north-west  after 
traversing  the  Syrian  district,  i.e.,  from  Amurru. 

2  On  the  possible  bearings  of  the  recent  explorations  in 
Turkestan,  and  more  particularly  the  important  work  of  the 
Pumpelly  expeditions  under  the  auspices  of  the  Carnegie  In- 
stitution, see  the  appendix  to  King,  History  of  Sumer  and 
Akkad,  pp.  351-358. 


PL  3.     Statue  of  Gudea,  Patesi  of  Lagash  (c.  2350  B.C.). 

Diorite  statue  foimd  at  Telloh  and  now  in  the  Louvre.  The  head 
was  found  by  De  Sarzec  in  1881  (De  Sarzec  Decouvertes,  PI.  12, 
Fig.  i)  and  through  the  discovery  of  the  body  in  1903  by  Captain 
Cros,  the  statue  was  completed.  See  Heuzey,  "  Une  Statue  complete 
de  Goudea,"  in  Revue  d' As syriologie,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  18-22,  and  Nouvelles 
Fouilles  de  Telloh,  pp.  21-25  and  PI.  i.  Ten  other  such  diorite 
statues  of  Gudea  (minus  the  heads)  have  been  found  at  Telloh, 
covered  with  dedicatory  and  historical  inscriptions.  See  De 
Sarzec,  Decouvertes,  Pis.  9-1 1 ;  14;  16-20;  and  Heuzey,  Catalogue 
pp.    169-188. 


Gudea,  Patesi  of  Lagash 
(.:.  2350  B.C.) 


Culture  and  Religion  13 

religious  significance  always  kept  pace  with  its  politi- 
cal importance,  and  often  surpassed  and  survived  it. 
Rivalry  between  these  centres  led  to  frequent  changes 
in  the  political  kaleidoscope,  now  one,  now  another 
claiming  a  certain  measure  of  jurisdiction  or  control 
over  the  others.  Of  this  early  period  we  have  as 
yet  obtained  merely  glimpses.  Titles  of  rulers  with 
brief  notices  of  their  wars  and  building  operations 
form  only  too  frequently  the  substance  of  the  infor- 
mation to  be  gleaned  from  votive  inscriptions,  and 
from  dates  attached  to  legal  and  business  documents. 
This  material  suffices,  however,  to  secure  a  general  per- 
spective. In  the  case  of  two  of  these  centres,  Lagash 
and  Nippur,  thanks  to  extensive  excavations  con- 
ducted there,  ^  the  framework  can  be  filled  out  with 


*  Excavations  at  Telloh — the  site  of  Lagash — were  begun  by 
Ernest  de  Sarzec  in  1881,  and  continued  after  his  death  in  1901 
by  Gaston  Cros  and  others.  See  de  Sarzec  and  Heuzey,  Decou- 
vertes  en  Chaldee,  (Paris,  1883),  to  date,  Cros,  Nouvelles  Fouilles 
de  Tello,  (Paris,  1909),  and  Heuzey's  Catalogue  of  the  Louvre 
collections  (Collection  des  Antiquites  Chaldeennes,  Paris,  1902). 
At  Nippur,  excavations  were  conducted  under  the  commission 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  by  Messrs,  Peters  and  Haynes 
from  1888  to  1900.  For  a  little  over  two  months  in  1900,  the 
excavations  were  conducted  by  Prof.  Hilprecht.  An  account  of 
the  two  campaigns  1 888-1 890  was  given  by  Dr.  John  P.  Peters, 
the  organiser  and  first  director,  in  two  volumes  under  the  title 
Nippur  (New  York,  1897);  Prof.  Hilprecht  in  Explorations  in 
Bible  Lands  (Philadelphia,  1903),  pp.  289-568  (republished  as  the 
official  history  of  the  expedition  under  the  title.  Excavations  in 
Assyria  and  Babylonia) ,  has  given  an  account  of  all  the  work 
done  at  Nippur  from  1888  to  1900.     The  value  of  Prof,  Hil- 


14  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

numerous  details.  The  general  conditions  existing 
at  Lagash  and  Nippur  may  be  regarded  as  typical 
for  the  entire  Euphrates  Valley  in  the  earliest  period. 
The  religion  had  long  passed  the  animistic  stage 
when  all  powers  of  nature  were  endowed  with  human 
purposes  and  indiscriminately  personified.  The  pro- 
cess of  selection  (to  be  explained  more  fully  in  a 
future  lecture)  had  singled  out  of  the  large  number  of 
such  personified  powers  a  limited  number,  which, 
although  associated  in  each  instance  with  a  locality, 
were,  nevertheless,  also  viewed  as  distinct  from  this 
association,  and  as  summing  up  the  chief  Powers  in 
nature  whereon  depended  the  general  welfare  and 
prosperity.  Growing  political  relationships  between 
the  sections  of  the  Euphrates  Valley  accelerated  this 
process  of  selection,  and  furthered  a  combination  of 
selected  deities  into  the  semblance,  at  least,  of  a 
pantheon  partially  organised,  and  which  in  time  be- 
came definitely  constituted.  The  patron  deities  of 
cities  that  rose  to  be  centres  of  a  district  absorbed 
the  local  numina  of  the  smaller  places.  The  names  of 
the  latter  became  epithets  of  the  deities  politically 
more   conspicuous,    so   that,  e.g.,  the   sun-god   of   a 

precht's  account  has  been  seriously  impaired  by  charges  of 
animus  in  belittling  the  work  of  Messrs.  Peters  and  Haynes,  and 
of  direct  misrepresentations — charges  which  have  not  been,  it  is 
thought,  successfully  refuted.  Fortunately,  the  value  of  work 
actually  accomplished  at  Nippur  and  of  the  material  there 
obtained  is  not  affected  by  these  misrepresentations. 


PI.  4.     Stone  Libation  Vase  of  Gudea,  Patesi  of  Lagash  (c.  2350  B.C.). 

A  votive  offering  to  the  god  Ningishzida.  The  elaborately 
sculptured  design  consists  of  two  serpents  entwined  around  a  staff, 
backed  by  two  fantastic  figures,  winged  monsters  with  serpents' 
heads  and  tails  ending  in  a  scorpion's  sting.  Green  steatite. 
Found  at  Telloh  and  now  in  the  Louvre.  See  De  Sarzec,  Decou- 
vertes,  PL  44,  Fig.  2,  and  pp.  234-236;  Heuzey,  Catalogue,  pp. 
280-284. 


Libation  Vase  of  Gudea 

Patesi  of  Lagash 

(c.  2350  B.C.) 


Culture  and  Religion  15 

centre  like  Lagash  became  almost  an  abstract  and 
general  personification  of  the  sun  itself.  Similarly, 
the  moon-god  of  Ur  received  the  names  and  attributes 
of  the  moon-gods  associated  with  other  places. 

A  marked  and  deep  religious  spirit  pervades 
throughout  the  culture  of  the  time.  The  rulers  held 
their  authority  directly  from  the  patron  deities — 
"by  the  grace  of  God,"  as  we  should  now  say. 
They  do  not  generally  go  so  far  as  to  claim  divine 
descent,  but  they  closely  approach  it.  They  regard 
themselves  as  chosen  by  the  will  of  the  gods.  Their 
strength  is  derived  from  Ningirsu,  they  are  nourished 
by  Nin-Kharsag,  they  are  appointed  by  the  goddess 
Innina.  When  they  go  to  war  the  gods  march  at 
their  side,  and  the  booty  is  dedicated  to  these  pro- 
tecting powers.  The  political  fortunes,  and  indeed 
the  general  culture,  are  thus  closely  bound  up  with 
the  religion.  Each  centre  had  a  chief  deity  whose 
position  in  the  pantheon  kept  pace  with  the  political 
growth  of  the  centre.  At  Lagash  this  chief  deity 
was  Ningirsu,  a  solar  deity;  at  Nippur  it  was  Enlil, 
originally  a  personification  of  the  storm;  at  Cuthah, 
it  was  Nergal,  likewise  a  solar  deity,  and  at  Ur  it  was 
Sin,  the  moon-god.  The  chief  edifice  in  the  capital 
of  the  principality  is  the  temple  of  the  patron  deity, 
alongside  of  which  are  smaller  sanctuaries  within  the 
sacred  area,  dedicated  to  the  gods  and  goddesses 
associated   with   the  main   cult.     Art  is   developed 


1 6  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

around  the  cult.  Such  artistic  skill  was  largely  em- 
ployed in  the  fashioning  of  votive  objects;  and  even 
where  the  rulers  erected  statues  of  themselves,  these 
were  dedicated  to  some  deity  and  intended  to  sym- 
bolise the  pious  devotion  of  the  god's  representative 
on  earth.  As  further  emphasising  the  bond  between 
religious  and  secular  conditions  we  find  the  palaces 
of  rulers  at  all  times  adjoining  the  temple. 

The  architecture  of  both  temple  and  palace  is  mas- 
sive and,  in  consequence  of  the  lack  of  a  hard  build- 
ing-material in  the  Euphrates  Valley,  it  is  perhaps 
natural  that  the  brick  constructions  developed  in  the 
direction  of  hugeness  rather  than  of  beauty.  The 
drawings  on  limestone  votive  tablets  and  on  other 
material  during  this  early  period  are  generally  crude. 
More  skill  is  displayed  in  incisures  on  seal  cylinders^ 
of  various  kinds  of  material,  bone,  shell,  quartz, 
chalcedony,  lapis-lazuli,  hematite,  marble,  and  agate. 
Though  serving  the  purely  secular  purpose  of  identify- 
ing an  individual's  personal  signature  to  a  business 
document — written  on  clay  as  the  usual  writing- 
material — these  cylinders  incidentally  illustrate  the 
bond  between  culture  and  religion  by  their  engraved 
designs,  which  are  invariably  of  a  religious  character, 
— such  as  the  adoration  of  deities,  sacrificial  scenes,  or 

*  See  W.  H.  Ward,  Seal  Cylinders  of  Western  Asia  (Washing- 
ton, 19 1  o),  for  the  most  thorough  and  exhaustive  study  of  the 
material.     Illustrations  on  Plates  6  and  7. 


PI.  5.     specimens  of  Early  Babylonian  Art. 

Fig.  I.     Silver  Vase  (with  copper  base)  of  Entemena,  Patesi  of  Lagash 

(C.  2850  B.C.). 

A  votive  offering  to  his  god  Ningirsu,  deposited  in  the  temple 
E-Ninnu.  The  central  design  of  which  only  one  face  is  shown  in 
the  illustration  consists  of  four  lion-headed  eagles,  of  which  two 
seize  a  lion  with  each  talon,  and  a  third  eagle  seizes  a  couple  of  deer 
and  the  fourth  a  couple  of  ibexes.  The  eagle  appears  to  have  been 
the  symbol  of  Ningirsu,  while  the  lion, — commonly  associated  with 
Ishtar — may  represent  Bau,  the  consort  of  Ningirsu — the  Ishtar 
of  Lagash.  The  combination  would  thus  stand  for  the  divine  pair. 
Dr.  Ward  {Seal  Cylinders  of  Western  Asia,  p.  34  seq.)  plausibly 
identifies  this  design  with  the  bird  Im-Gig,  designated  in  the  in- 
scriptions of  Gudea  as  the  emblem  of  the  ruler.  This  vase,  con- 
sidered to  be  the  finest  specimen  of  early  metal  work  of  Babylonia, 
was  found  at  Telloh,  and  is  now  in  the  Louvre.  See  De  Sarzec, 
Decouvertes,  PI.  43  and  43  bis  and  pp.  261-264;  Heuzey,  "  Le  Vase 
d' Argent  d'Entemena "  {Monuments  Piot,  ii.,  p.  5  seq.,  and  PI.  i,  and 
Heuzey,  Catalogue,  pp.  372-80).  The  same  design  of  the  lion-headed 
eagle  seizing  two  lions  is  found  on  other  monuments  of  Lagash. 
See  Heuzey,  Catalogue,  Nos.  7  and  12.  See  also  Nos.  234  and  239. 
Fig.  2.     Sculptured  Base. 

Decoration  in  stone  (dark  green  steatite),  forming  the  support 
of  some  larger  piece.  There  are  seven  small  squatting  figures 
(each  with  a  tablet  on  his  knees)  distributed  in  a  circle  around  the 
stone  and  intended,  presumably,  as  a  decorative  design.  Found 
at  Telloh.  Now  in  the  Louvre.  See  De  Sarzec,  Decouvertes,  PI. 
21,  Fig.  5,  and  pp.  161-162;  Heuzey,  Catalogue,  pp.  255-256. 


I  \ 


Fig.  I.     vSilver  Vase  ui  Kntemena 
Patesi  of  Lagash  {c.  2850  B.  C.) 


Fig.  2.     Sculptured  Base 


Pis.  6  and  7.     Seal  Cylinders   of  Various   Periods.     See  De  Sarzec,  Decou- 
vertes,  PL  30  and  30  bis  and  pp.  276-324. 

These  two  plates  of  seal  cylinders — all  found  at  Telloh — may 
be  taken  as  typical  of  the  illustrations  found  on  these  objects, 
which  served  the  purpose  of  personal  seals,  used  by  the  owners  as 
their  signatures  to  business  documents.  They  were  rolled  over 
the  clay  tablets  on  which  business  transactions  were  inscribed. 
Presumably  the  cylinders  were  also  used  as  amulets.  (See  Herod- 
otus, Book  I,  §  195,  who  says  that  every  Babylonian  "carries  a 
seal.")  The  design  in  the  centre  of  PI.  6  represents  Gilgamesh, 
the  hero  of  the  Babylonian  Epic,  attacking  a  bull,  while  another 
figure — presumably  Enkidu  (though  different  from  the  usual  type) — 
is  attacking  a  lion.  This  conflict  with  animals  which  is  an  episode 
in  the  Epic  (see  PI.  33)  is  very  frequently  portrayed  on  seal  cylin- 
ders in  a  large  number  of  variations.  See  Ward,  Cylinders  of 
Western  Asia,  Chap.  X.  Another  exceedingly  common  scene  por- 
trays a  seated  deity  into  whose  presence  a  worshipper  is  being  led 
by  a  priest— or  before  whom  a  worshipper  directly  stands — followed 
by  a  goddess,  who  is  the  consort  of  the  deity  and  who  acts  as  inter- 
ceder  for  the  worshipper.  On  PI.  6  there  are  three  specimens  of  this 
scene;  on  PI.  7  likewise  three.  An  altar,  tree,  or  sacrificial  animal — 
and  sometimes  all  three — are  added  to  the  design.  The  seated 
god  is  commonly  Shamash,  the  sun-god,  but  Sin,  the  moon-god, 
Ea,  and  iMarduk,  Adad,  Ningirsu  (and  probably  others)  are  also 
found,  as  well  as  goddesses.  See  Ward  op.  cit.,  Chaps.  XVI.  and, 
XXXIX.  The  seated  god  with  streams  issuing  from  both  sides 
on  PL  7  (5th  row  to  the  right)  is  certainly  Sham^ash;  so  also  the  one 
in  the  opposite  comer  with  rays  protruding  from  his  shoulders. 
See  Ward,  op.  cit.,  Chap.  XIV.  Instead  of  the  seated  god,  we 
frequently  find  the  god  in  a  standing  posture  of  which  PL  7  con- 
tains three  examples.  The  one  on  the  lowest  row  to  the  left  is 
Shamash,  the  sun-god,  with  one  leg  bare  and  uplifted — symbolising 
the  sun  rising  over  the  mountain;  the  other  in  the  fourth  row  to 
the  right  is  probably  the  god  ]\Iarduk  with  the  crook  (or  scimitar) 
standing  on  a  gazeUe,  while  the  third — on  the  third  row  in  the  centre 
— is  interesting  as  being,  according  to  the  accompanying  inscription, 
a  physician's  seal.  The  deity  represented  is  Iru — a  form  or  messen- 
ger of  Nergal,  the  god  of  pestilence  and  death,  which  suggests  a 
bit  of  grim  (or  unconscious)  humour  in  selecting  this  deity  as  the 


Pis.  6  and  7 — Continued 

emblem  of  the  one  who  ministers  unto  disease.  The  accompanying 
emblems  have  been  conjectured  to  be  the  physician's  instruments, 
but  this  is  uncertain.  We  have  also  two  illustrations  of  the  popular 
myths  which  were  frequently  portrayed  on  these  cylinders — both 
on  PL  7.  The  one  in  the  centre  on  the  second  row  is  an  episode 
in  a  tale  of  Etana — a  shepherd — who  is  carried  aloft  by  an  eagle 
to  the  mountain  in  which  there  grows  the  plant  of  hfe ;  the  second — 
on  the  fourth  row  in  the  centre — represents  Nergal's  invasion  of  the 
domain  of  Ereshkigal,  the  mistress  of  the  lower  world,  and  his 
attack  on  the  goddess — crouching  beneath  a  tree.  The  other  scene 
on  the  cylinder  seems  to  be  an  ofTering  to  Nergal,  as  the  conqueror 
and,  henceforth,  the  controller  of  the  nether  world.  (See  p.  369 
and  Ward  op.  ciL,  Chap.  XXIII.)  The  remaining  designs  similarly 
have  a  religious  or  mythical  import.  The  seals  of  the  Neo-Baby- 
lonian  and  Persian  periods  show  a  tendency  to  become  smaller 
in  size  and  to  embody  merely  symbols  (like  the  one  on  PI.  7,  2nd 
row,  right  corner)  instead  of  a  full  scene. 


I 


of^'^'.-rVK 


/^.^ 


.^-'^^J? 


tmm 


Seal  Cylinders  of  Various  Periods 


Mm 


Seal  Cylinders  of  Various  Periods 


Culture  and  Religion  17 

representations  of  myths  or  mythical  personages. 
Though  marred  frequently  by  grotesqueness,  the  metal 
work — in  copper,  bronze,  or  silver — is  on  the  whole 
of  a  relatively  high  order,  particularly  in  the  portrayal 
of  animals.  The  human  face  remains,  however,  with- 
out expression,  even  where,  as  in  the  case  of  statues 
chiselled  out  of  the  hard  diorite,^  imported  from 
Arabia,  the  features  are  carefully  worked  out. 

The  population  was  largely  agricultural,  but  as 
the  cities  grew  in  size,  naturally,  industrial  pursuits 
and  commercial  activity  increased.  Testimony  to 
brisk  trading  in  fields  and  field  products,  in  houses 
and  woven  stuffs,  in  cattle  and  slaves  is  furnished  by 
the  large  number  of  business  documents  of  all  periods 
from  the  earliest  to  the  latest,  embracing  such  a  vari- 
ety of  subjects  as  loans,  rents  of  fields  and  houses, 
contracts  for  work,  hire  of  workmen  and  slaves,  and 
barter  and  exchange  of  all  kinds.  Even  in  the 
purely  business  activity  of  the  country,  the  bond  be- 
tween culture  and  religion  is  exemplified  by  the  large 
share  taken  by  the  temples  in  the  commercial  life. 
The  temples  had  large  holdings  in  land  and  cattle. 
They  loaned  money  and  engaged  in  mercantile  pur- 
suits of  various  kinds;  so  that  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  business  documents  in  both  the  older  and  the 
later  periods  deal  with  temple  affairs,  and  form  part 
of  the  official  archives  of  the  temples.^ 

*  See  the  statue  of  Gudea,  Plate  3.  2  ggg  p^  276  seq. 


1 8  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

The  prominent  influence  exerted  by  religion  in  the 
oldest  period  finds  a  specially  striking  illustration  in 
the  position  acquired  by  the  city  of  Nippur — cer- 
tainly one  of  the  oldest  centres  in  the  Euphrates 
Valley.  So  far  as  indications  go,  Nippur  never  as- 
sumed any  great  political  importance,  though  it  is 
possible  that  it  did  so  at  a  period  still  beyond  oiu*  ken. 
But  although  we  do  not  learn  of  any  jurisdiction 
exercised  by  her  rulers  over  any  considerable  portion 
of  the  Euphrates  Valley,  we  find  potentates  from 
various  parts  of  Babylonia  and  subsequently  also  the 
Assyrian  kings  paying  homage  to  the  chief  deity  of 
the  place,  Enlil.^  To  his  temple,  known  as  E-Kur, 
"mountain  house,"  they  brought  votive  objects  in- 
scribed with  their  names.  Rulers  of  Kish,  Uruk,  Ur, 
Lagash,  Agade  are  thus  represented  in  the  older 
period,  and  it  would  appear  to  have  been  almost  an 
official  obligation  for  those  who  claimed  sovereignty 
over  the  Euphrates  Valley  to  mark  their  control  by 
some  form  of  homage  to  Enlil,  the  name  of  whose 
temple  became  in  the  course  of  time  a  general  term 
for  ' '  sanctuary. ' '  ^  The  patron  deities  of  other  centres, 
such  as  Ningirsu  of  Lagash,  Nergal  of  Cuthah,  Sin  of 

^Or  EUil.     Seep.  67  note  i. 

^  The  term  Ekur,  "temple,"  passes  beyond  the  domain  of  the 
Euphrates  Valley  and  survives  apparently  under  the  form 
Igilrd  in  Aramaic  papyri  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  See  Sachau, 
Drei  Aramdische  Papyrusurkunden  aus  Elephantine  (Berlin, 
1908),  pp.  24  seq. 


Culture  and  Religion  19 

Ur,  Shamash  of  Sippar,  and  Marduk  of  Babylon,  were 
represented  by  shrines  or  temples  within  the  sacred 
quarter  of  Nippur;  and  the  rulers  of  these  centres 
rarely  failed  to  include  in  their  titles  some  reference  to 
their  relationship  to  Enlil  and  to  his  consort  Ninlil, 
or,  as  she  was  also  called,  Nin-Kharsag,  "the  lady  of 
the  mountain.'* 

The  position  thus  occupied  by  Nippur  was  not  un- 
like that  of  the  sacred  places  of  India  like  Benares, 
or  like  that  of  Rome  as  the  spiritual  centre  of  Christ- 
endom during  the  Middle  Ages.  Sumerians  and 
Semites  alike  paid  their  obeisance  to  Enlil,  who 
through  all  the  political  changes  retained,  as  we  shall 
see,  the  theoretical  headship  of  the  pantheon.  When 
he  is  practically  replaced  by  Marduk,  the  chief  god 
of  the  city  of  Babylon,  after  Babylon  had  become 
the  political  centre  of  the  entire  district,  he  transfers 
his  attributes  to  his  successor.  As  the  highest  hom- 
age paid  to  Marduk,  he  is  called  the  bel  or  "lord" 
par  excellence  in  place  of  Enlil,  while  Marduk 's  con- 
sort becomes  Ninlil,  like  the  consort  of  Enlil. 

The  control  of  Nippur  was  thus  the  ambition  of 
all  rulers  from  the  earliest  to  the  latest  periods;  and 
the  plausible  suggestion  has  been  recently  made  that 
the  claim  of  divinity,  so  far  as  it  existed  in  ancient 
Babylonia,^  was  merely  intended  as  an  expression 

^  See  Kugler,  Sternkunde  und  Sterndienst  in  Babel,  ii.,  i,  pp. 
144-149.     Sargon  of  Agade  and  his  son  Naram-Sin  are  the  first 


20  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  such  control — an  indication  that  a  ruler  who  had 
secured  the  approval  of  Enlil  might  regard  himself 
as  the  legitimate  vicegerent  of  the  god  on  earth,  and 
therefore  as  partaking  of  the  divine  character  of 
Enlil  himself. 

This  close  relationship  between  religion  and  cul- 
ture, in  its  various  aspects — political,  social,  eco- 
nomic, and  artistic, — is  thus  the  distinguishing  mark 
of  the  early  history  of  the  Euphrates  Valley  that 
leaves  its  impress  upon  subsequent  ages.  Intellec- 
tual life  centres  around  religious  beliefs,  both  those 
of  popular  origin  and  those  developed  in  schools  at- 
tached to  the  temples,  in  which,  as  we  shall  see, 
speculations  of  a  more  theoretical  character  were  un- 
folded in  amplification  of  popular  beliefs. 

Ill 

As  already  pointed  out,  even  in  the  oldest  period 
to  which  our  material  enables  us  to  trace  the 
history  of  the  Euphrates  Valley,  we  witness  the  con- 
flict for  political  control  between  Sumerians  and 
Akkadians  (that  is  between  non-Semites  and  Sem- 

to  affix  the  sign  for  deity  to  their  names.  Their  example  is  fol- 
lowed by  the  kings  of  Ur,  Isin,  and  Larsa,  though  not  by  all  of 
them.  With  the  rise  of  Babylon  as  the  centre  of  the  united 
states  of  the  Euphrates  Valley  under  Hammurapi  {ca.  2000 
B.C.),  the  custom  appears  to  have  disappeared,  probably  as  a 
concession  to  Marduk,  whose  position  as  the  practical  head  of  the 
pantheon  was  jealously  guarded  by  the  rulers  of  Babylon. 


Culture  and  Religion  21 

ites).  Lagash,  Nippur,  Ur,  and  Uruk  are  ancient 
Sumerian  centres,  but  near  the  border-line  between  the 
southern  and  the  northern  sections  of  this  valley  a 
strong  political  centre  is  established  at  Kish,  which 
foreshadows  the  growing  predominance  of  the  Sem- 
ites. The  rulers  sometimes  assume  the  title  of 
"king,"  sometimes  are  known  by  the  more  modest 
title  of  "  chief, "^  a  variation  that  suggests  frequent 
changes  of  political  fortunes.  The  population  is 
depicted  on  the  monuments  as  Sumerian,  and  yet 
among  the  rulers  we  find  one  bearing  a  distinctly 
Semitic  name,^  while  some  of  the  inscriptions  of  the 
rulers  of  Kish  are  clearly  to  be  read  as  Semitic,  and 
not  as  Sumerian.  It  is,  therefore,  not  surprising  to 
find  the  Semitic  kings  of  Akkad,  circa  2500  B.C., 
and  even  before  the  rise  of  Kish,  reaching  a  position 
of  supremacy  that  extended  their  rule  far  into  the 
south,  besides  passing  to  the  north,  east,  and  west, 
far  beyond  the  confines  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 

There  are  two  names  in  this  dynasty  of  Akkad  with 
its  centre  at  Agade  that  stand  forth  with  special 
prominence — Sargon,  and  his  son  Naram-Sin.     Sar- 

^  Pa-te-si,  the  Semitic  equivalent  af  which  is  ishakku,  lit- 
erally "the  strong  one";  it  became,  however,  the  designation  of 
a  ruler  who  was  dependent  upon  some  powerful  lord.  The 
Sumerian  term  is  composed  of  three  elements,  conveying  the 
sense  of  "holding  the  staff  of  authority";  it  points  to  the  time 
when  rulership  combined  priestly  with  lay  functions. 

2  Enbi-Ishtar.  See  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Alter  turns,  i.,  2, 
P-  443. 


PI.  8.     Stele  of  Naram-Sin,  King  of  Agade  (c.  2470  B.C.). 

It  represents  the  king  conquering  enemies  in  a  mountainous 
district.  The  peak  of  the  mountain  is  pictured  as  rising  to  the 
stars.  Some  of  the  king's  foes  are  fleeing,  others  are  pleading  for 
mercy.  Found  at  Susa,  whither  it  was  presumably  carried  as  a 
trophy  by  the  Elamites  in  one  of  their  incursions  into  Babylonia, 
perhaps  by  Shutruk-Nakhunte,'  king  of  Elam,  c,  1160  B.C.  See 
Delegation  en  Perse  Memoires,  {.,  pp.  144-158  and  PI.  X.  and  ii.. 
pp.  53-55.     Now  in  the  Louvre. 


Stele  of  Narain-wSm,  King  of  Agade 
(c.  2500  B.  C.) 


PI.  9.     Bas-Relief  of  Naram-Sin  (basalt). 

Found  in  1891  near  Diarbekr;  now  in  the  Imperial  Ottoman 
Museum  at  Const-^  •ople.  It  records  the  victories  of  the  king 
which  he  attributes  to  the  aid  of  Ea,  and  pronounces  curses  on  any- 
one who  destroys  or  removes  this  monument  of  himself.  See 
Scheil  and  Maspero  in  Recueil  de  Travaux,  vol.  xv.,  pp.  62-66. 


Plate  9.     Bas-Relief  of  Xaram-Sin 


Culture  and  Religion  23 

was  also  claimed  by  Sargon.  The  rtilers  of  Lagash 
humbly  call  themselves  the  "servants"  of  the  power- 
ful conqueror;  Cuthah,  Uruk,  Opis,  and  Nippur  in 
the  south,  Babylon  and  Sippar  in  the  north,  are  among 
the  centres  in  the  Euphrates  Valley,  specifically 
named  by  Sargon  as  coming  tmder  his  sway.  He  ad- 
vances to  Nippur,  and,  by  assuming  the  title  "King 
of  Akkad  and  of  the  Kingdom  of  Enlil,"  announces 
his  control  of  the  whole  of  Sumer  and  Akkad. 

The  times  must  have  been  ripe  for  a  movement  on 
so  large  a  scale.  As  so  often  happens,  the  political 
upheaval  was  followed  by  a  strong  intellectual  stimu- 
lus which  shows  itself  in  a  striking  advance  in  Art. 
One  of  the  most  remarkable  monimients  of  the  Eu- 
phrates Valley  dates  from  this  period.  It  depicts 
Naram-Sin,  the  son  of  Sargon,  triumphing  over 
Elam ;  and  it  seems  an  irony  of  fate  that  this  magnifi- 
cent sculptured  stone  should  have  been  carried  away, 
centuries  later,  as  a  trophy  of  war  by  the  Elamites  in 
one  of  their  successful  incursions  into  the  Euphrates 
Valley.^  In  triumphant  pose  Naram-Sin  is  repre- 
sented in  the  act  of  humiliating  the  enemy  by  driving 
a  spear  through  the  prostrate  body  of  a  soldier,  plead- 

^  Found  in  the  course  of  the  French  excavations  at  Susa  under 
the  superintendence  of  Jacques  de  Morgan,  to  which  we  owe  the 
famous  code  of  Hammurapi,  and  the  superb  series  of  Boundary- 
Stones — all  carried  to  Elam  as  the  booty  of  war  in  the  nth 
century  B.C.  See  de  Morgan,  Scheil,  Gautier,  etc.,  Dele- 
gation en  Perse  (lo  vols,  of  Memoires  already  issued). 


24  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

ing  for  mercy.  The  king  wears  the  cap  with  the 
upturned  horns  that  marks  him  as  possessing  the  attri- 
butes of  divine  power.  He  continues  the  conquests  of 
his  father,  and  penetrates  even  into  Arabia,^  so  that  he 
could  well  lay  claim  to  the  high-sounding  title  which 
he  assumes  of  "King  of  the  Four  Regions."^  The 
glory  of  this  extensive  kingdom  thus  established  by 
Sargon  and  Naram-Sin  was,  however,  of  short  dura- 
tion. Agade  was  obliged,  apparently,  to  yield  first  to 
Kish.  This  happened  not  long  after  Naram-Sin's 
death  but,  what  is  more  significant,  within  about 
two  centuries  the  Sumerians  succeeded  in  regaining 
their  prestige ;  and  with  their  capital  at  Ur,  an  ancient 
centre  of  the  moon-cult,  Sumerian  rulers  emphasise 
their  sovereignty  of  both  south  and  north  by  as- 
suming the  title  "King  of  Sumer  and  Akkad."  Ur- 
Engur,  the  founder  of  the  dynasty  {ca.  2300  B.C.), 
which  maintained  its  sway  for  117  years,  is  the  first  to 
assume  this  title,  which,  to  be  siire,  is  not  so  grandilo- 

^  Ejiown  as  Magan,  which  appears  to  have  been  at  the  time 
the  designation  of  Eastern  Arabia,  though  the  name  has  not  yet 
been  satisfactorily  explained.  It  was  from  Magan  that  the  hard 
diorite  for  statues  was  obtained  by  Gudea.  See  King,  History 
of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  p.  241  seg. 

'  The  four  regions  meant  are  Akkad,  Subartu,  Elam,  Amurru 
— representing  south,  north,  east,  and  west  respectively. 
The  term,  however,  became  a  general  one  to  convey  the  idea  of 
universal  sway  without  reference  to  any  particular  countries. 
In  the  inscriptions  of  the  Assyrian  rulers  it  is  replaced  by  the 
th\e  shar  kishshati,  which  may  be  rendered  by  "King  of  Universal 
Rule." 


Culture  and  Religion  25 

quent  as  that  of  "King  of  the  Four  Regions,"  but  rests 
on  a  more  substantial  foundation.  It  represents  a 
realm  that  could  be  controlled,  while  a  universal 
empire  such  as  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin  claimed  was 
largely  nominal — a  dream  in  which  ambitious  con- 
querors from  Sargon  to  Napoleon  have  indulged, 
and  which  could  at  the  most  become  for  a  time  a 
terrifying  nightmare  to  the  nations  of  the  world. 

With  Sargon  and  Ur-Engur  we  thus  enter  on  a 
new  era.  Instead  of  a  rivalry  among  many  centres 
for  political  supremacy  over  the  south  or  the  north, 
we  have  Semites  and  Sumerians  striving  for  complete 
control  of  the  entire  valley,  with  a  marked  tendency 
to  include  within  their  scope  the  district  to  the  north 
of  Akkad.  This  district,  as  a  natural  extension  con- 
sequent upon  the  spread  of  the  Sumero-Akkadian 
culture,  was  eventually  to  become  a  separate  princi- 
pality that  in  time  reversed  the  situation,  and  began 
to  encroach  upon  the  independence  of  the  Euphrates 
Valley. 

Two  new  factors  begin  about  this  time,  and  possibly 
even  earlier,  to  exercise  a  decided  influence  in  further 
modifying  the  Sumero-Akkadian  culture ;  one  of  these 
is  the  Amoritish  influence,  the  other  is  a  conglomera- 
tion of  peoples  collectively  known  as  the  Hittites. 
From  the  days  of  Sargon  we  find  frequent  traces 
of  the  Amorites;  and  there  is  at  least  one  deity 
in  the  pantheon  of  this  early  period  who  was  im- 


26  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

ported  into  the  Euphrates  Valley  from  the  west, 
the  home  of  the  Amorites.  This  deity  was  a  storm 
god  known  as  Adad,  ^  appearing  in  Syria  and 
Palestine  as  Hadad.  According  to  Professor  Clay,^ 
most  of  the  other  prominent  members  of  what 
eventually  became  the  definitely  constituted  Baby- 
lonian pantheon  betray  traces  of  having  been  sub- 
jected to  this  western  influence.  Indeed,  Professor 
Clay  goes  even  further  and  would  ascribe  many 
of  the  parallels  between  Biblical  and  Babylonian 
myths,  traditions,  customs,  and  rites  to  an  early  in- 
fluence exerted  by  Amurru  (which  he  regards  as  the 
home  of  the  northern  Semites)  on  Babylonia,  and  not, 
as  has  been  hitherto  asstimed,  to  a  western  extension 
of  Babylonian  culture  and  religion.  It  is  too  early 
to  pronounce  a  definite  opinion  on  this  interesting 
and  novel  thesis;  but,  granting  that  Professor  Clay 
has  pressed  his  views  beyond  legitimate  bounds,  there 
can  no  longer  be  any  doubt  that  in  accounting  for 
the  later  and  for  some  of  the  earlier  aspects  of  the 
Sumero- Akkadian  civilisation  this  factor  of  Amurru 
must  be  taken  into  account;  nor  is  it  at  all  unlikely 
that  long  before  the  days  of  Sargon,  a  wave  of  migra- 
tion from    the  north  and    north-west  to  the  south 

*  See  p.  117  seq. 

'  Amurru,  the  Home  of  the  Northern  Semites  (Philadelphia, 
1909),  a  monograph  distinguished  for  learning  and  ingenuity,  in 
which  the  thesis  is  set  forth  of  a  very  extensive  influence  on  the 
religious  conceptions,  and  on  the  myths  of  the  Euphrates  Valley, 


Culture  and  Religion  27 

and  south-east  had  set  in,  which  brought  large  bodies 
of  Amorites  into  the  Euphrates  Valley  as  well  as  into 
Assyria.  The  circumstance  that,  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  the  earliest  permanent  settlements  of  Semites 
in  the  Euphrates  Valley  appear  to  be  in  the  northern 
portion,  creates  a  strong  presumption  in  favour  of 
the  view  which  makes  the  Semites  come  into  Babylo- 
nia from  the  north-west.^ 

Hittites  do  not  make  their  appearance  in  the  Eu- 
phrates Valley  until  some  centuries  after  Sargon,  but 
since  it  now  appears  ^  that  ca.  1800  B.C.  they  had 
become  strong  enough  to  invade  the  district,  and 
that  a  Hittite  ruler  actually  occupied  the  throne  of 
Babylonia  for  a  short  period,  we  are  justified  in  carry- 
ing the  beginnings  of  Hittite  influence  back  to  the 
time  at  least  of  the  Ur  dynasty.  This  conclusion  is 
strengthened  by  the  evidence  for  an  early  establish- 
ment of  a  Hittite  principality  in  north-western  Meso- 
potamia, known  as  Mitanni,  which  extended  its 
sway  as  early  at  least  as  2100  B.C.  to  Assyria  proper. 

Thanks  to  the  excavations  conducted  by  the  Ger- 
man expedition^  at   Kalah-Shergat    (the  site  of  the 

^See  above,  p.  12,  note  i. 

=  See  a  paper  by  the  writer,  "  The  Hittites  in  Babylonia,"  In  the 
Revue  Semitique,  vol.  xviii.,  pp.  87-96,  and  Meyer's  Geschichte 
des  Altertums,  i.,  2,  p.  577. 

3  Results  published  in  the  Mitteilungen  der  Deutschen  Orient- 
Gesellschaft,  issued  at  regular  intervals  of  a  few  months. 
Since  the  beginnings  of  the  excavations  in  190 1,  some  fifty  num- 
bers have  been  published. 


28  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

old  capital  of  Assyria  known  as  Ashur),  we  can  now 
trace  the  beginnings  of  Assyria  several  centuries 
further  back  than  was  possible  only  a  few  years  ago. 
The  proper  names  at  this  earliest  period  of  Assyrian 
history  show  a  marked  Hittite  or  Mitanni  influence  in 
the  district,  and  it  is  significant  that  Ushpia,  the 
founder  of  the  most  famous  and  oldest  sanctuary  in 
Ashur,  bears  a  Hittite  name.^  The  conclusion  ap- 
pears justified  that  Assyria  began  her  rule  as  an  ex- 
tension of  Hittite  control.  With  a  branch  of  the 
Hittites  firmly  established  in  Assyria  as  early  as  ca, 
2100  B.C.,  we  can  now  account  for  an  invasion  of 
Babylonia  a  few  centuries  later.  The  Hittites 
brought  their  gods  with  them,  as  did  the  Amorites, 
and,  with  the  gods,  religious  conceptions  peculiarly 

'  See  Ungnad's  interesting  discussion  in  his  monograph, 
"Urkunden  aus  Dilbat,"  in  the  Beitrdgeztcr  Assyriologie,  vol.  vi., 
pp.  8-21.  That  the  Mitanni  are  a  branch  of  the  Hittites  is 
generally  admitted;  nor  is  there  any  longer  reason  to  doubt  that 
the  "sons  of  Heth"  from  whom  Abraham  buys  the  cave  of 
Machpelah  (Genesis,  chap,  xxiii.)  are  genuine  Hittites,  who  had 
passed  far  into  the  south  of  Palestine  as  they  had  penetrated  into 
the  Euphrates  Valley.  In  the  i8th  century  we  find  the  centre  of 
Hittite  power  in  northern  Asia  Minor  with  the  capital  at 
Boghaz-Keui,  where  Winckler  has  found  important  remains  in- 
cluding large  numbers  of  clay  tablets.  See  Mitteilungen  der 
Dentschen  Orient-Gesellschaft,  Nr.  35.  This  more  northern 
settlement  appears  to  be  due  to  the  gradual  retreat  of  the  Hit- 
tites before  the  growing  power  of  Semitic  Assyria.  On  ex- 
plorations in  Hittite  districts  and  the  general  status  of  our  present 
knowledge  about  the  Hittites,  see  Garstang,  The  Land  of  the 
Hittites,  (New  York,  19 10). 


Culture  and  Religion  29 

their  own.  Traces  of  Hittite  influence  are  to  be  seen 
e.g.,  in  the  designs  on  the  seal  cylinders,  as  has  been  re- 
cently shown  by  Dr.  Ward/  who,  indeed,  is  inclined  to 
assign  to  this  influence  a  share  in  the  religious  art,  and, 
therefore,  also  in  the  general  culture  and  religion,  much 
larger  than  could  have  been  suspected  a  decade  ago. 

Who  those  Hit  tit  es  were  we  do  not  as  yet  know. 
Probably  they  represent  a  motley  group  of  various 
peoples,  and  they  may  turn  out  to  be  Aryans.  It  is 
quite  certain  that  they  originated  in  a  mountainous 
district,  and  that  they  were  not  Semites.  We 
should  thus  have  a  factor  entering  into  the  Babylo- 
nian-Assyrian civilisation — leaving  its  decided  traces 
in  the  religion — which  was  wholly  different  from  the 
two  chief  elements  in  that  civilisation — the  Sumer- 
ian  and  the  Akkadian. 

The  Amorites  have  generally  been  regarded  as 
Semites.  Professor  Clay,  we  have  seen,  would  re- 
gard Amurru  as,  in  fact,  the  home  of  a  large  branch  of 
the  Semites ;  yet  the  manner  in  which  the  Old  Testa- 
ment contrasts  the  Canaanites — the  old  population 
of  Palestine  dispossessed  by  the  invading  Hebrews — 
with  the  Amorites,  raises  the  question  whether  this 
contrast  does  not  rest  on  an  ethnic  distinction.  The 
Amoritish  type  as  depicted  on  Egyptian  monuments  ^ 

^  Cylinders  of  Western  Asia,  chaps,  xxvi  and  xlii-Hv. 
'  See  Flinders  Petrie,   Types  from  the   Egyptian  Monuments, 
London,  1887. 


30  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

also  is  distinct  from  that  of  the  Semitic  inhabitants 
of  Palestine  and  Syria.  It  is  quite  within  the  range  of 
possibility  that  the  Amorites,  too,  represent  another 
non-Semitic  factor  further  complicating  the  web  of 
the  Sumero- Akkadian  cvilture,  though  it  must  also  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  Amorites,  whatever  their 
original  ethnic  type  may  have  been,  became  com- 
mingled with  Semites,  and  in  later  times  are  not  to  be 
distinguished  from  the  Semitic  population  of  Syria. 

Leaving  these  problems  regarding  Amorites  and 
Hittites  aside  as  not  yet  ripe  for  solution,  we  may 
content  ourselves  with  a  recognition  of  these  two  ad- 
ditional factors  in  the  further  development  of  the 
political  and  religious  history  of  the  Euphrates  Valley 
and  of  its  northern  extension  known  as  Assyria. 

IV 

For  some  time  after  Ur-Engur  had  established  a 
powerful  dynasty  at  Ur,  the  Sumerians  seem  to 
have  had  everything  their  own  way.  His  son  and 
successor,  Dungi,  wages  successful  wars,  like  Sargon 
and  Naram-Sin,  with  the  nations  around  and  again 
assumes  the  larger  title  of  "King  of  the  Four  Regions." 
He  hands  over  his  large  realm,  comprising  Elam  on  the 
one  side,  and  extending  to  Syria  on  the  other,  to  his 
son  Bur- Sin.  We  know  but  few  details  of  the  reign 
of  Bur-Sin  and  of  the  two  other  members  of  the  Ur 
dynasty  that  followed  him,  but  the  indications  are 


Culture  and  Religion  31 

that  the  Sumerian  reaction,  represented  by  the  ad- 
vent of  the  Ur  dynasty,  though  at  first  apparently 
complete,  is  in  reality  a  compromise.  Semitic  in- 
fluence waxes  stronger  from  generation  to  generation, 
as  is  shown  by  the  steadily  growing  preponder- 
ance of  Semitic  words  and  expressions  in  Sumerian 
docimients.  The  Semitic  culture  of  Akkad  not  only 
colours  that  of  Sumer,  but  permeates  it  so  thoroughly 
as  largely  to  eradicate  the  still  remaining  original 
and  unassimilated  Simierian  elements.  The  Sumer- 
ian deities  as  well  as  the  Sumerians  themselves  adopt 
the  Semitic  form  of  dress.  ^  We  even  find  Sumer- 
ians bearing  Semitic  names;  and  in  another  century 
Semitic  speech,  which  we  may  henceforth  designate 
as  Babylonian,  became  predominant. 

On  the  overthrow  of  the  Ur  dynasty  the  political 
centre  shifts  from  Ur  to  Isin.  The  last  king  of  the  Ur 
dynasty  is  made  a  prisoner  by  the  Elamites,  who  thus 
again  asserted  their  independence.  The  title  "King 
of  the  Four  Regions  "  is  discarded  by  the  rulers  of  Isin, 
and  although  they  continue  to  use  the  title  "King 
of  Sumer  and  Akkad,"  there  are  many  indications 
that  the  supremacy  of  the  Sumerians  is  steadily  on 
the  wane.  They  were  unable  to  prevent  the  rise  of 
an  independent  state  with  its  centre  in  the  city  of 
Babylon  under  Semitic  control,  and  about  the  year 
2000  B.C.,  the  rulers  of  that  city  begin  to  assume  the 

'  See  Meyer,  Sumerier  und  Semiten,  p.  53,  seg. 


32  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

title  "King  of  Babylon."  The  establishment  of  this 
so-called  first  dynasty  of  Babylon  definitely  fore- 
shadows the  end  of  Sumerian  supremacy  in  the  Eu- 
phrates Valley,  and  the  permanent  triumph  of  the 
Semites.  Fifty  years  afterward  we  reach  another 
main  epoch,  in  many  respects  the  most  important, 
with  the  accession  of  Hammurapi^  to  the  throne  of 
Babylon  as  the  sixth  member  of  the  dynasty.  Dur- 
ing his  long  reign  of  forty-two  years  {ca.  1 958-1 91 6 
B.C.),  Hammurapi  fairly  revolutionised  both  the 
political  and  the  religious  conditions. 

The  name  of  Hammurapi  deserves  to  be  emblazoned 
in  letters  of  gold  on  the  scroll  of  fame.  His  pre- 
decessors, to  be  sure,  had  in  part  paved  the  way  for 
him.  Availing  themselves  of  the  weakness  of  the 
south,  which  had  again  been  split  up  into  a  number 
of  independent  principalities — Ur,  Isin,  Larsa,  Kish, 
and  Uruk, — they  had  been  successful  not  only  in 
warding  off  attacks  from  the  outside  upon  their  own 
district,  but  in  forcing  some  of  these  principalities  to 
temporary  subjection.  Still,  there  was  much  left 
for  Hammurapi  to  do  before  he  could  take  the  titles 
"King  of  Stmier  and  Akkad"  and  "King  of  the  Four 
Regions";  and  it  was  not  until  the  thirtieth  year  of 
his  reign  that,  by  the  successful  overthrow  of  the 
old-time  enemy,  Elam,  and  then  of  his  own  and  his 

*  This  form  appears  to  be  more  correct  than  che  current 
Hammurabi. 


PI.  lo.     Semitic  Types. 

Fig.  I.  Two  portraits  of  Hammurapi,  king  of  Babylonia  (c.  1958- 
1916  B.C.)  (a)  Bas-relief  on  a  clay  tablet,  recording  the  homage 
of  a  high  official  Itur-Ashdum  to  Hammurapi  and  to  the  goddess 
Ashratum — a  designation  of  the  consort  of  the  "Amorite  "  deity 
Adad.  Now  in  the  British  Museum.  See  King,  Letters  and  In- 
scriptions of  Hammurabi,  vol.  iii.  Frontispiece  and  pp.  194-196. 
(b)  From  the  design  at  the  head  of  the  famous  Code  of  Hammurapi. 
(See  PL  34.) 

Fig.  2.     Assyrian  Type. 

Found  by  Layard  at  Nimroud  and  designated  by  him  as  the 
head  of  a  winged  figure.  See  Layard,  Monuments  of  Nineveh,  i., 
Pi.  92. 


Semitic  Types 

Fig.  I .    Two  Portraits  of  Ham- 

murapi,  King  of  Babylonia 

(r.  1958-1916  B.  C.) 


Fig.  2.     Assyrian  Type 


Culture  and  Religion  33 

father's  formidable  rival  Rim-Sin,  the  king  of  Larsa, 
he  could  claim  to  be  the  absolute  master  of  the  entire 
Euphrates  Valley,  and  of  the  adjoining  Elam.^ 
After  that,  he  directed  his  attention  to  the  north  and 
north-west,  and  before  the  end  of  his  reign  his  domin- 
ion embraced  Assyria,  and  extended  to  the  heart  of 
the  Hittite  domain  in  the  north-west.  But  Hammu- 
rapi  is  far  more  than  a  mere  conqueror.  He  is  the 
founder  of  a  real  empire — welding  north  and  south 
into  a  genuine  union,  which  outlasts  the  vicissitudes  of 
time  for  almost  fifteen  hundred  years.  The  perma- 
nent character  of  his  work  is  due  in  part  at  least  to  the 
fact  that  he  is  not  only  "the  mighty  king,  the  king  of 
Babylon,"  but  also  "the  king  of  righteousness,"  as 
he  calls  himself,  devoted  to  promoting  the  welfare 
of  his  subjects,  and  actuated  by  the  ambition  that 
every  one  who  had  a  just  cause  should  come  to  him 
as  a  son  to  a  father.  He  establishes  the  unity  of  the 
country  on  a  firm  basis  by  the  codification  of  the 
existing  laws  and  by  a  formal  promulgation  of  this 
code  throughout  his  empire  as  the  authoritative  and 
recognised  guide  in  government.  The  importance 
of  this  step  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  If  from 
this  time  on  we  speak  of  a  Babylonian  empire  which, 

^  For  a  survey  of  the  political  history  of  Babylonia  during 
the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon,  we  now  have  Dr.  Arno  Poebel's 
excellent  sketch,  based  on  a  renewed  study  of  the  period,  in  his 
work  Legal  and  Business  Documents  from  the  Time  of  the  First 
Dynasty  oj  Babylon  (Philadelphia,  1909),  pp.  1 13-122. 


34  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

despite  frequent  changes  of  dynasties,  despite  a  con- 
trol of  Babylonia  for  over  half  a  millennium  {ca. 
1750-1175  B.C.),  by  a  foreign  people  known  as  the 
Cassites,  survived  with  its  identity  clearly  marked, 
down  to  the  taking  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus  in  539  B.C., 
and  in  some  measure  even  to  the  advent  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great  in  331  B.C., — it  is  due,  in  the  first 
instance,  to  the  unifying  power  exerted  by  Hammu- 
rapi's  code,  the  fortunate  discovery  of  which  in  1891^ 
has  contributed  so  much  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
conditions  of  culture  and  religion  in  ancient  Baby- 
lonia. It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  this  code 
created  the  Babylonian  people,  just  as,  about  six 
centuries  later,  the  great  leader  Moses  formed  the 
Hebrew  nation  out  of  heterogeneous  elements  by 
giving   them   a   body  of  laws,   civil    and    religious.^ 

'  Found  at  Susa  (see  above,  p.  23  note  i),  and  first  published 
in  1894  with  a  transliteration  and  translation  by  Professor  Vin- 
cent Scheil  of  Paris.  Since  then  various  translations  have  ap- 
peared in  English  and  German,  the  latest  and  most  correct 
being  the  one  by  Kohler  and  Ungnad,  Hammurabi's  Gesetz 
(Leipzig,  1909).  A  convenient  form  in  English  is  C.  H.  W. 
Johns'  Oldest  Code  of  Laws  in  the  World  (Edinburgh,  1903);  a 
more  complete  edition  is  that  of  R.  F.  Harper,  The  Code  of 
Hammurabi  (University  of  Chicago,  1904),  though  both  Johns' 
and  Harper's  renderings  require  correction  now  in  many 
particulars.     See  Plate  34  for  an  illustration  of  the  monument. 

2  While  none  of  the  codes  now  distinguished  in  the  Penta- 
teuch go  back  to  the  days  of  Moses,  there  are  regulations  in  ail 
of  them  that  can  be  traced  back  to  the  beginnings  of  the  Hebrew 
nation;  and  it  seems  to  my  mind  a  reasonable  inference  that  the 
tradition  which  assumes  Moses  to  have  been   a  lawgi\'er   rests 


Culture  and  Religion  35 

The  code  established  a  bond  of  union  between  Sumer 
and  Akkad  of  a  character  far  more  binding  than 
could  be  brought  about  by  the  mere  subjection  of  the 
south  to  the  north.  Through  this  code  whatever  dis- 
tinctions still  existed  between  Sumerians  and  Ak- 
kadians were  gradually  wiped  out.  From  the  time 
of  Hammurapi  on,  we  are  justified  in  speaking  of  Baby- 
lonians, and  no  longer  of  Sumerians  and  Akkadians. 

The  code  illustrates  in  a  striking  manner  the  close 
relationship  between  culture  and  religion  in  the 
Euphrates  Valley  which  forms  our  main  theme  in 
this  lecture.  The  eloquent  introduction  will  illus- 
trate the  spirit  that  pervades  it  : 

When  the  supreme  Anu,  king  of  the  Annunaki,  and  Enlih 
the  lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  who  fixes  the  destiny  of  the  land , 
had  committed  to  Marduk,  the  first-born  of  Ea,  the  rule  of  all 
mankind,  making  him  great  among  the  Igigi,  gave  to  Babylon 
his  supreme  name,  making  it  pre-eminent  in  the  regions  (of 
the  world),  and  established  therein  an  enduring  kingdom,  firm 
in  its  foundation  like  heaven  and  earth — at  that  time  they 
appointed  me,  Hammurapi,  the  exalted  ruler,  the  one  who  fears 
the  gods,  to  let  justice  shine  in  the  land,  to  destroy  the  wicked 
and  unjust  that  the  strong  should  not  oppress  the  weak,  that 
I  should  go  forth  like  the  sun  over  mankind. 

Hammurapi  then  passes  on  to  an  enumeration  of  all 
that  he  did  for  the  various  cities  of  his  realm — for 
Nippur,  Durilu,  Eridu,  Babylon,  Ur,  Sippar,  Larsa, 

on  a  sound  basis,  even  though  it  is  no  longer  possible  t^  recon- 
struct the  code  that  he  compiled  for  the  government  of  his 
people. 


36  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Uruk,  Isin,  Kish,  Cuthah,  Borsippa,  Dilbat,  Lagash, 
Adab,  Agade,  Nineveh,  and  the  distant  Hallab.' 
It  is  significant  that  he  refers  to  his  conquests  only 
incidentally,  and  lays  the  chief  stress  upon  what  he 
did  for  the  gods  and  for  men,  enumerating  the  temples 
that  he  built  and  beautified,  the  security  that  he  ob- 
tained for  his  subjects,  the  protection  that  he  granted 
to  those  in  need  of  aid.  "Law  and  justice,"  he  con- 
cludes, "I  established  in  the  land  and  promoted  the 
well-being  of  the  people.*'^ 

The  religious  and  ethical  spirit  is  thus  the  impell- 
ing power  of  the  most  important  accomplishment  in 
Hammurapi's  career;  and  the  interdependence  of 
culture  and  religion  finds  another  striking  illustration 
in  the  changed  aspect  that  the  pantheon  and  the 
cult  assumed  after  the  period  of  Hammurapi.  He 
names  at  the  beginning  of  his  code  the  two  deities, 
Anu  and  Enlil.  Both  were,  originally,  local  gods, 
Anu  the  patron  deity  of  Uruk,  Enlil  the  chief  deity  of 
Nippur.  Through  a  process  that  will  be  set  forth  in 
detail  in  the  next  lecture,  Anu  and  Enlil  became  in  the 
course  of  time  abstractions,  summing  up,  as  it  were, 
the  chief  manifestations  of  divine  power  in  the  uni- 
verse. Anu,  from  being  originally  a  personification 
of  the  sun,  becomes  the  god  of  heaven,  while  Enlil, 

'  The  modern  Aleppo. 

2  The  code  itself  will  be  more  fully  discussed  in  the  last  lec- 
ture as  an  illustration  of  the  ethics  of  the  Babylonians  and 
Assyrians. 


Culture  and  Religion  37 

starting  out  as  a  storm-god,  takes  on  as  the  theoreti- 
cal head  of  the  pantheon  the  traits  of  other  gods,  and 
becomes  the  god  in  control  of  the  earth  and  of  the 
regions  immediately  above  it.  The  two  therefore 
stand  for  heaven  and  earth,  and  to  them  there  is 
joined,  as  a  third  member,  Ea.  Originally,  the  local 
deity  of  another  ancient  centre  (Eridu,  on  or  near- 
by the  Persian  GulfO  and  a  god  of  the  water,  Ea 
became  the  symbol  of  the  watery  element  in  gen- 
eral. Anu,  Enlil,  Ea,  presiding  over  the  universe,  are 
supreme  over  all  the  lower  gods  and  spirits  com- 
bined as  Annunaki  and  Igigi,  but  they  entrust  the 
practical  direction  of  the  universe  to  Marduk,  the  god 
of  Babylon.  He  is  the  first-born  of  Ea,  and  to  him 
as  the  worthiest  and  fittest  for  the  task,  Anu  and  Enlil 
voluntarily  commit  universal  rule.  This  recognition 
of  Marduk  by  the  three  deities,  who  represent  the 
three  divisions  of  the  universe — heaven,  earth,  and 
all  waters, — marks  the  profound  religious  change 
that  was  brought  about  through  the  advance  of  Mar- 
duk to  a  commanding  position  among  the  gods. 
From  being  a  personification  of  the  sun  with  its 
cult  localised  in  the  city  of  Babylon,  over  whose  des- 
tinies he  presides,  he  comes  to  be  recognised  as 
leader  and  director  of  the  great  Triad.  Corre- 
sponding, therefore,  to    the    political  predominance 

»  Owing  to  the  steady  accumulation  of  soil,  Eridu  is  at  present 
some  ninety  miles  inland. 


38  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

attained  by  the  city  of  Babylon  as  the  capital  of 
the  united  empire,  and  as  a  direct  consequence  there- 
of, the  patron  of  the  political  centre  becomes  the 
head  of  the  pantheon  to  whom  gods  and  man- 
kind alike  pay  homage.  The  new  order  must  not, 
however,  be  regarded  as  a  break  with  the  past,  for 
Marduk  is  pictured  as  assuming  the  headship  of  the 
pantheon  by  the  grace  of  the  gods,  as  the  legitimate 
heir  of  Anu,  Enlil,  and  Ea.  There  are  also  ascribed 
to  him  the  attributes  and  powers  of  all  the  other  great 
gods,  of  Ninib,  Shamash,  and  Nergal,  the  three  chief 
solar  deities,  of  Sin  the  moon-god,  of  Ea  and  Nebo, 
the  chief  water  deities,  of  Adad,  the  storm-god,  and 
especially  of  the  ancient  Enlil  of  Nippur.  He  be- 
comes like  Enlil  "the  lord  of  the  lands,"  and  is  known 
pre-eminently  as  the  hel  or  "lord."  Addressed 
in  terms  which  emphatically  convey  the  impres- 
sion that  he  is  the  one  and  only  god,  whatever 
tendencies  toward  a  true  monotheism  are  devel- 
oped in  the  Euphrates  Valley,  all  cluster  about 
him.  The  cult  undergoes  a  correspondingly  pro- 
found change.  Hymns,  originally  composed  in 
honour  of  Enlil  and  Ea,  are  transferred  to  Marduk. 
At  Nippur,  as  we  shall  see,^  there  developed  an 
elaborate  lamentation  ritual  for  the  occasions  when 
national  catastrophes,  defeat,  failure  of  crops,  de- 
structive storms,  and  pestilence  revealed  the  dis- 
^  See  p.  321,  seq.  V. 


Culture  and  Religion  39 

pleasure  and  anger  of  the  gods.  At  such  times 
earnest  endeavours  were  made,  through  petitions, 
accompanied  by  fasting  and  other  symbols  of  con- 
trition, to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  with  the  angered 
Powers.  This  ritual,  owing  to  the  religious  pre- 
eminence of  Nippur,  became  the  norm  and  standard 
throughout  the  Euphrates  Valley,  so  that  when 
Marduk  and  Babylon  came  practically  to  replace 
Enlil  and  Nippur,  the  formulas  and  appeals  were 
transferred  to  the  solar  deity  of  Babylon,  who  re- 
presenting more  particularly  the  sun-god  of  spring, 
was  well  adapted  to  be  viewed  as  the  one  to  bring 
blessing  and  favours  after  the  sorrows  and  tribula- 
tions of  the  stormy  season,  which  had  bowed  the 
country  low.  Just  as  the  lamentation  ritual  of  Nip- 
pur became  the  model  to  be  followed  elsewhere,  so  at 
Eridu,  the  seat  of  the  cult  of  Ea,  the  water  deity,  an 
elaborate  incantation  ritual  was  developed  in  the 
course  of  time,  consisting  of  sacred  formulas,  accom- 
panied by  symbolical  rites  for  the  purpose  of  exorcising 
the  demons  that  were  believed  to  be  the  causes  of  dis- 
ease and  of  releasing  those  who  had  fallen  under  the 
power  of  sorcerers.  ^  The  close  association  between  Ea 
and  Marduk  (the  cult  of  the  latter,  as  will  be  sub- 
sequently shown, ''  having  been  transferred  from  Eridu 
to  Babylon) ,  led  to  the  spread  of  this  incantation  ritual 
to  other  parts  of  the  Euphrates  Valley.  It  was  adopted 
^  See  p.  312,  seq.  V.  ^  See  p.  93. 


40  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

as  part  of  the  Marduk  cult  and,  as  a  consequence, 
the  share  taken  by  Ea  therein  was  transferred  to 
the  god  of  Babylon.  This  adoption,  again,  was 
not  in  the  form  of  a  violent  usurpation  by  Marduk 
of  functions  not  belonging  to  him,  but  as  a  transfer 
willingly  made  by  Ea  to  Marduk,  as  his  son. 

In  like  manner,  myths  originally  told  of  Enlil 
of  Nippur,  of  Anu  of  Uruk,  and  of  Ea  of  Eridu, 
were  harmoniously  combined,  and  the  part  of  the 
hero  and  conqueror  assigned  to  Marduk.  Prominent 
among  these  myths  was  the  story  of  the  conquest 
of  the  winter  storms,  pictured  as  chaos  preceding 
the  reign  of  law  and  order  in  the  universe.  In  each 
of  the  chief  centres  the  character  of  creator  was 
attributed  to  the  patron  deity,  thus  in  Nippur  to 
Enlil,  in  Uruk  to  Anu,  and  in  Eridu  to  Ea.  The 
deeds  of  these  gods  were  combined  into  a  tale  pic- 
turing the  steps  leading  to  the  gradual  establishment 
of  order  out  of  chaos,  with  Marduk  as  the  one  to 
whom  the  other  gods  entrusted  the  difficult  task. 
Marduk  is  celebrated  as  the  victor  over  Tiamat — a 
monster  symbolising  primeval  chaos.'  In  celebra- 
tion of  his  triumph  all  the  gods  assemble  in  solemn 
state,  and  address  him  by  fifty  names, — a  procedure 
which  in  ancient  phraseology  means  the  transfer  of 
all  the  attributes  involved  in  these  names.  The 
name  is  the  essence,  and  each  name  spells  additional 

» See  also  below  p.  loo  seq. 


Culture  and  Religion  41 

power.  Anu  hails  Marduk  as  ' '  mightiest  of  the  gods , " 
and,  finally,  Enlil  and  Ea  step  forward  and  declare 
that  their  own  names  shall  henceforth  be  given  to 
Marduk.  "His  name,"  says  Ea,  "shall  be  Ea  as 
mine,"  and  so  once  more  the  power  of  the  son  is  con- 
firmed by  the  father. 


There  is  only  one  rival  to  Marduk  in  the  later 
periods,  and  he  is  Ashur,  who,  from  being  the 
patron  deity  of  the  ancient  capital  of  the  Assyrian 
empire,  rises  to  the  rank  of  the  chief  deity  of  the  war- 
like Assyrians.  It  is  just  about  the  time  of  Ham- 
murapi  that  Assyria  begins  to  loom  into  prominence. 
It  was  at  first  merely  an  extension  of  Babylonia  to- 
wards the  north  with  a  strong  admixture  of  Hittite 
and  also  Amoritish  elements,  and  then  a  more  or 
less  dependent  province;  later  its  patesis  exchanged 
the  more  modest  title,  with  its  religious  implication,' 
for  sharru,  "king,"  and  acquired  a  practically  inde- 
pendent position  at  the  beginning  of  the  second 
millennium  before  this  era.  Within  a  few  centuries, 
the  Assyrians  became  formidable  rivals  to  their 
southern  cousins. 

The  first  result  of  the  rise  of  Assyria  was  to  limit 
the  further  extension  of  Babylonia.  The  successors 
of  Hammurapi,   partly  under  the  influence  of  the 

^  See  above  p.  21,  note  i. 


42  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

loftier  spirit  which  he  had  introduced  into  the  country 
during  the  closing  years  of  his  reign,  partly  under  the 
stress  of  necessity,  became  promoters  of  peace.  In- 
stead of  further  territorial  expansion  we  find  the 
growth  of  commerce,  which,  however,  did  not  hinder 
Babylonia  itself  from  becoming  a  prey  to  a  conquering 
nation  that  came  (as  did  the  Sumerians)  from  the 
moimtainous  regions  on  the  east.  Native  rulers  are 
replaced  by  Cassites  who,  as  we  have  already  indi- 
cated, retain  control  of  the  Euphrates  Valley  for 
more  than  half  a  millennium.  It  is  significant  of  the 
strength  which  Assyria  had  meanwhile  acquired, 
that  it  held  the  Cassites  in  check.  Alliances  be- 
tween Assyrians  and  Cassites  alternated  with  con- 
flicts in  which,  on  the  whole,  the  Assyrians  gained  a 
steady  advantage.  But  the  Assyrian  empire  also 
had  its  varying  fortunes  before  it  assumed,  in  the 
1 2th  century,  a  position  of  decided  superiority  over 
the  south.  The  chief  adversaries  of  the  Assyarian 
rulers  were  the  Hittite  groups,  who  continued  to 
maintain  a  strong  kingdom  in  north-western  Meso- 
potamia. In  addition,  there  were  other  groups  farther 
north  in  the  mountain  recesses  of  Asia  Minor,  which 
from  time  to  time  made  serious  inroads  on  Assyria, 
abetted  no  doubt  by  the  Hittites  or  by  the  Mitanni 
elements  in  Assyria,  which  had  probably  not  been 
entirely  absorbed  as  yet  by  the  Semitic  Assyrians. 
As  a  counterpart  to  Sargon  in  the  south,  we  have 


Culture  and  Religion  43 

Tiglathpileser  I.  in  the  north  {ca.  1130-1100  B.C.)- 
He  succeeded  in  quelling  the  opposition  of  the  Hit- 
tites,  carried  his  triumphant  arms  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean coast,  entered  into  relations  with  Egypt,  as 
some  of  the  Cassite  rulers  had  done  centuries  be- 
fore, and  for  a  time  held  in  check  Babylonia,  now 
again  ruled  by  native  kings.  Like  Sargon's  con- 
quests, the  glory  of  the  new  empire  of  Tiglath- 
pileser was  of  short  duration.  Even  before  his  death 
there  were  indications  of  threatened  trouble.  For 
about  two  centuries  Assyria  was  partially  eclipsed, 
after  which  the  kings  of  Assyria,  supported  by  large 
standing  armies,^  bear,  without  interruption  till  the 
fall  of  Nineveh  in  606  B.C.,  the  proud  title  of  "King 
of  Universal  Rule,"  which,  as  we  have  seen,^  took  the 
place  of  the  Babylonian  "King  of  the  Four  Regions." 
Though  "  Aramaean  "  hordes  (perhaps  identical  with 
Amorites,  or  a  special  branch  of  the  latter)  con- 
tinue to  give  Assyrian  rulers,  from  time  to  time,  con- 
siderable trouble,  they  are,  however,  held  in  check 
until  in  the  reign  of  Ashumasirpal  (884-860  B.C.) 
their  power  is  effectually  broken.  This  energetic 
ruler  and  his  successors  push  on  to  the  north  and 
north-west  into  the  indefinite  district  known  as 
Nairi,  as  well  as  to  the  west  and  south-west.     Once 

^  See  on  the  organisation  of    the    Assyrian  army,   Walther 
Manitius  in  Zeitschrift  fur  Assyriologie,  vol.  xxiv.  (two  articles). 
'See  p.  24,  note  2. 


44  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

more  the  Mediterranean  coast  is  reached,  and  at  a 
pass  on  the  Nahr-el-Kelb  (the  "  Dog"  river)  outside  of 
Beirut,  Ashurnasirpal  and  his  son  Shalmaneser  II. 
(860-824  B.C.)  set  up  images  of  themselves  with 
records  of  their  achievements.^ 

We  are  reaching  the  period  when  Assyria  begins  to 
interfere  with  the  internal  affairs  of  the  Hebrew 
kingdoms  in  Palestine.  Another  century,  and  the 
northern  kingdom  (722  B.C.)  falls  a  prey  to  Assyria's 
insatiable  greed  of  empire.  Babylonia,  reduced  to 
playing  the  ignoble  part  of  fomenting  trouble  for 
Assyria,  succeeds  in  keeping  Assyrian  armies  well 
occupied,  and  so  wards  off  the  time  of  her  own  humilia- 
tion. Compelled  to  acknowledge  the  superiority  of 
her  northern  rival  in  various  ways.  Babylonia  ex- 
hausts the  patience  of  Assyrian  rulers,  to  whose 
credit  it  must  be  said  that  they  endeavoured  to 
make  their  yoke  as  light  as  was  consistent  with  their 
dignity.  The  consideration  that  rulers  like  Sargon 
of  Assyria  (721-705  B.C.)  showed  for  the  time- 
honoured  prestige  of  the  south  was  repaid  by  frequent 
attempts  to  throw  off  the  hated  yoke,  light  though  it 
was.  Sennacherib  (705-681  B.C.)  determines  upon 
a  more  aggressive  policy,  and  at  last  in  689  B.C., 
Babylon  is  taken  and  mercilessly  destroyed.      Sen- 

^  See  the  valuable  monograph  of  Winckler,  Das  Vorgehilde 
am  Nahr-el-Kalb  (Leipzig,  1909),  with  a  complete  account  of  the 
records  of  Egyptian,  Assyrian,  and  Babylonian  rulers  on  this 
historic  site. 


PL  II.  Sargon,  King  of  Assyria  (721-705  B.C.),  with  attendant,  presumably 
one  of  his  chief  officers.  From  the  king's  palace  at  Khorsabad,  and 
now  in  the  Louvre.  See  Botta  et  Flandin,  Monument  de  Ninive, 
i.,  PL  12. 


Sargon,  King  of  Assyria  (721-705  B.C.)  with  High  Official 


Culture  and  Religion  45 

nacherib  boasts  of  the  thoroughness  with  which  he 
carried  out  the  work  of  destruction.  He  pillaged  the 
city  of  its  treasures.  He  besieged  and  captured  all 
the  larger  cities  of  the  south — Sippar,  Uruk,  Cuthah, 
Kish,  and  Nippur — and  when,  a  few  years  later,  the 
south  organised  another  revolt,  the  king,  to  show  his 
power,  put  Babylon  under  water,  and  thus  obliterated 
almost  all  vestiges  of  the  past.  The  excavations  at 
Babylon'  carried  on  by  the  German  expedition  show 
how  truthfully  Sennacherib  described  his  work  of 
destruction;  few  traces  of  the  older  Babylon  have 
been  revealed  by  the  spade  of  the  explorer.  What  is 
found  dates  chiefly  from  the  time  of  the  Neo-Babylo- 
nian  dynasty,  and  particularly  from  the  days  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, who,  as  the  restorer  of  the  past  glory  of 
the  capital,  is  justified  in  boasting,  as  in  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  "  Is  not  this  great  Babylon  that  I  have  built !  "^ 
Babylonia,  however,  had  the  satisfaction  of  surviv- 
ing Assyria.  By  a  combination  of  hordes  from  the 
north  with  Medes  of  the  south-east, — the  latter 
abetted  no  doubt  by  Babylonia, — Nineveh  is  taken 
in  606  B.C.,  and  the  haughty  Assyrian  power  is 
crushed  for  ever.  Shortly  before  the  end,  how- 
ever, Assyria  witnessed  the  most  brilliant  reign 
in  her  history — that  of  Ashurbanapal  (668-626  B.C.) 

^  Mttteilungen    der    Deutschen    Orient-Gesellschaft,    especially 
Nos.  1-13. 

*  Dan.  iv.,  27  (verse  30  in  the  English  Version). 


46  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

— the  Sardanapalus  of  Greek  tradition — who  was 
destined  to  reahse  the  dreams  of  his  predecessors, 
Sargon,  Sennacherib,  and  Esarhaddon;  of  whom  all 
four  had  been  fired  with  the  ambition  to  make  Assy- 
ria the  mistress  of  the  world.  Their  reigns  were  spent 
in  carr3ang  on  incessant  warfare  in  all  directions. 
During  Ashurbanapal's  long  reign.  Babylonia  en- 
dured the  humiliation  of  being  governed  by  Assyrian 
princes.  The  Hittites  no  longer  dared  to  organise 
revolt,  Phoenicia  and  Palestine  acknowledged  the 
sway  of  Assyria,  and  the  lands  to  the  east  and  north- 
east were  kept  in  submission.  From  Susa,  the 
capital  of  Elam,  Ashiirbanapal  carried  back  in  triumph 
a  statue  of  Nana, — the  Ishtar  of  Uruk, — which  had 
been  captured  over  1600  years  before,  and — greatest 
triumph  of  all — the  Assyrian  standards  were  planted 
on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  though  the  control  of  Egypt, 
as  was  soon  shown,  was  more  nominal  than  real. 
Thus  the  seed  of  dominating  imperialism,  planted 
by  the  old  Sargon  of  Agade,  had  borne  fruit.  But 
the  spirit  of  Hammurapi,  too,  hovered  over  Assyria. 
Ashurbanapal  was  more  than  a  conqueror.  Like 
Hammurapi,  he  was  a  promoter  of  culture  and  learn- 
ing. It  is  to  him  that  we  owe  practically  all  that  has 
been  preserved  of  the  literature  produced  in  Babylo- 
nia. Recognising  that  the  greatness  of  the  south 
lay  in  her  intellectual  prowess,  in  the  civilisation 
achieved  by  her  and  transferred  to  Assyria,  he  sent 


PI.  12.     Esarhaddon,  King  of  Assyria  (680-669  B.C.). 

Before  the  king  are  two  royal  prisoners,  Tirhaka,  the  King  of 
Ethiopia,  and  Ba'alu  the  King  of  Tyre.  To  emphasise  his  great- 
ness in  contrast  to  the  insignificance  of  his  enemies,  the  king 
portrays  himself  as  of  commanding  stature.  At  the  head  of  the 
stone,  the  emblems  of  the  great  gods  of  Assyria,  Ashur,  Sin, 
Shamash,  Ishtar,  Marduk,  Nebo,  Ea,  Ninib,  and  Sibitti  (seven 
circles),  with  Ashur,  Ishtar  of  Nineveh,  Enlil,  and  Adad  standing 
on  animals.  Diorite  stele  found  at  Sendschirli  in  North- 
western Syria.  Now  in  the  Royal  Museum  of  Berlin.  See 
Luschan,  Ausgrahungen  in  Sendschirli  (Berlin,  1893),  pp.  11-43. 


Esarhaddon,  King  of  Assyria  (680- 
669  B.C.)  with  two Roval Prisoners 


Culture  and  Religion  47 

scribes  to  the  archives,  gathered  in  the  temple- 
schools  of  the  south,  and  had  copies  made  of  the  ex- 
tensive collections  of  omens,  oracles,  hymns,  incanta- 
tions, medical  series,  legends,  myths,  and  religious 
rituals  of  all  kinds  that  had  accumulated  in  the  course 
of  many  ages.  Only  a  portion,  alas !  of  the  library  has 
been  recovered  through  the  excavations  of  Layard 
and  Rassam  (i  849-1 854)  and  their  successors  on  the 
site  of  Ashurbanapal's  palace  at  Nineveh  in  which  the 
great  collection  was  stored.^  About  20,000  frag- 
ments of  clay  bricks  have  found  their  way  to  the 
British  Museum,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  this  re- 
presents less  than  one  half  of  the  extent  of  the  great 
library  which  Ashurbanapal  had  accumulated.  His 
immediate  purpose  in  doing  so  was  to  emphasise  by 
an  unmistakable  act  that  Assyria  had  assumed  the 
position  of  Babylonia,  not  only  as  an  imperial  power 
and  as  a  stronghold  of  culture,  but  also  as  the  great 
religious  centre.  The  bulk,  nay,  practically,  the 
whole  of  the  literature  of  Babylonia  was  of  a  religious 
character,  or  touched  religion  and  religious  beliefs 
and  customs  at  some  point,  in  accord  with  the  close 

^  In  the  mound  Kouyunjik,  opposite  the  modern  Mosul. 
See,  besides  the  account  in  Layard 's  Babylon  and  Nineveh 
(London,  1853),  chap,  xvi.,  and  Rassam's  Asshur  (London, 
1897),  pp.  31  seq,,  Menant,  La  BiUiotheque  du  Palais  de  Ninive 
(Paris,  1880),  Bezold's  Introduction  to  the  Catalogue  of  the  Kouy- 
unjik Collection,  vol,  v.  (London,  1899),  and  Hilprecht, 
Explorations  in  Bible  Lands,  pp.  1 21-123. 


48  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

bond  between  religion  and  culture  which,  we  have  seen, 
was  so  characteristic  a  feature  of  the  Euphratean 
civilisation.  The  old  centres  of  religion  and  culture, 
like  Nippur,  Sippar,  Cuthah,  Uruk,  and  Ur,  had 
retained  much  of  their  importance,  despite  the  cen- 
tralising influence  of  the  capital  of  the  Babylonian 
empire.  Hammurapi  and  his  successors  had  en- 
deavoured, as  we  have  seen,  to  give  to  Marduk  the 
attributes  of  the  other  great  gods,  Enlil,  Anu,  Ea, 
Shamash,  Adad,  and  Sin,  and,  to  emphasise  it,  had 
placed  shrines  to  these  gods  and  others  in  the  great 
temples  of  Marduk,  and  of  his  close  associate,  Nebo, 
in  Babylon,  and  in  the  neighbouring  Borsippa.' 
Along  with  this  policy  went,  also,  a  centralising  tend- 
ency in  the  cult  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  rituals, 
omens,  and  incantations  produced  in  the  older  centres 
were  transferred  to  Babylon  and  combined  with  the 
indigenous  features  of  the  Marduk  cult.^  Yet  this 
process  of  gathering  in  one  place  the  literary  remains 
of  the  past  had  never  been  fully  carried  out.  It  was 
left  for  Ashurbanapal  to  harvest  within  his  palace  the 
silent  witnesses  to  the  glory  of  these  older  centres. 
While  Babylon  and  Borsippa  constituted  the  chief 
sources  whence  came  the  copies  that  he  had  prepared 
for  the  royal  library,  internal  evidence  shows  that  he 

^  Opposite  Babylon. 

*  For  further  details  the  reader  is  referred  to  a  paper  by  the 
writer,  "Did  the  Babylonian  Temples  have  Libraries?" 
Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  vol.  xxvii.,  pp.  147-182. 


PI.  13.     Ashurbanapal,  King  of  Assyria,  (668-626  B.C.)  with  his  Queen  in  the 
Garden  of  the  Palace  at  Nineveh. 

Alabaster  slab,  found  by  Layard  at  Kouyunjik  in  Ashurbanapal' s 
palace.  Now  in  the  British  Museum.  See  Mansell,  "British 
Museum  Photographs,"  Part  III.  (Assyrian  Sculptures),  No.  522 
B  and  C. 


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Culture  and  Religion  49 

also  gathered  the  literary  treasures  of  other  centres, 
such  as  Sippar,  Nippur,  Uruk.  The  great  bulk  of 
the  religious  literature  in  Ashurbanapal's  library- 
represents  copies  or  editions  of  omen-series,  incanta- 
tion-rituals, myths,  legends,  and  collections  of  prayers, 
made  for  the  temple-schools,  where  the  candidates 
for  the  various  branches  of  the  priesthood  received 
their  training.  Hence  we  find  supplemental  to  the 
literature  proper,  the  pedagogical  apparatus  of  those 
days — lists  of  signs,  grammatical  exercises,  analyses 
of  texts,  texts  with  commentaries,  and  commentaries 
on  texts,  specimen  texts,  and  school  extracts,  and 
pupils'  exercises.  The  temple  school  appears  to  have 
been  the  depository  in  each  centre  of  the  religious 
texts  that  served  a  purely  practical  purpose,  as  hand- 
books and  guides  in  the  cult.  Purely  literary  collec- 
tions were  not  made  in  the  south,  not  even  in  the 
temples  of  Babylon  and  Borsippa,  in  which  the  more 
comprehensive  character  of  the  religious  texts  was 
merely  a  consequence  of  the  centralising  tendency  in 
the  cult,  and,  therefore,  likewise  prompted  by  purely 
practical  motives  and  needs.  There  are  no  temple 
libraries  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  word,  either  in 
Babylonia  or  in  Assyria.  Ashurbanapal  is  the  first 
genuine  collector  of  the  literature  of  the  past,  and  it 
is  significant  that  he  places  the  library  which  he 
gathered,  in  his  palace  and  not  in  a  temple.  Had 
there  been  temple  libraries  in  the  south,  he  would  un- 
4 


50  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

doubtedly  have  placed  the  royal  library  in  the  chief 
temple  of  Ashur — as  his  homage  to  the  patron  deity 
of  Assyria  and  the  protector  of  her  armies. 

At  the  same  time,  by  transferring  the  literature  of 
all  the  important  religious  centres  of  the  south  to  his 
royal  residence  in  Nineveh,  Ashurbanapal  clearly  in- 
tended to  give  an  unmistakable  indication  of  his  de- 
sire to  make  Nineveh  the  intellectual  and  religious  as 
well  as  the  political  capital.  His  dream  was  not  that 
of  the  Hebrew  prophets  who  hoped  for  the  day  when 
from  Zion  would  proceed  the  law  and  light  for  the 
entire  world,  when  all  nations  would  come  to  Jeru- 
salem to  pay  homage  to  Jahweh,  but  his  ambition 
partook  somewhat  of  this  character,  limited  only 
by  his  narrower  religious  horizon  which  shut  him 
in.  For  Ashurbanapal,  Nineveh  was  to  be  a  gather- 
ing place  of  all  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  the  world 
grouped  around  Ashur,  just  as  courtiers  surround  a 
monarch  whose  sway  all  acknowledge.  To  gather  in 
his  capital  the  texts  that  had  grown  up  around  the 
homage  paid  in  the  past  to  these  gods  and  goddesses 
in  their  respective  centres,  was  his  method  of  giving 
expression  to  his  hope  of  centralising  the  worship  of 
these  deities  around  the  great  figure  of  Ashur.  Ashur- 
banapal's  policy,  thus,  illustrates  again  the  continued 
strength  of  the  bond  between  culture  and  religion, 
despite  the  fact  that  in  its  external  form  the  bond 
appeared  political  rather  than  intellectual. 


Culture  and  Religion  51 

The  king's  ambition,  however,  had  its  ideaHstic 
side  which  must  not  be  overlooked.  The  god  Ashur 
was  in  some  respects  well  adapted  to  become  the  em- 
blem of  centralised  divine  power,  as  well  as  of  political 
centralisation.  The  symbol  of  the  god  was  not,  as 
was  the  case  with  other  deities,  an  image  in  human 
shape,  but  a  disc  from  which  rays  or  wings  proceed,  a 
reminder,  to  be  sure,  that  Ashur  was  in  his  origin 
a  solar  deity,  ^  yet  sufficiently  abstract  and  imper- 
sonal to  lead  men's  thoughts  away  from  the  purely 
naturalistic  or  animistic  conceptions  connected  with 
Ashur.  This  symbol^  appears  above  the  images  of  the 
kings  on  the  monuments  which  they  erected  to  them- 
selves. It  hovers  over  the  pictures  of  the  Assyrian 
armies  on  their  march  against  their  enemies.  It  was 
carried  into  the  battle  as  a  sacred  palladium — a 
symbol  of  the  presence  of  the  gods  as  an  irresistible 
ally  of  the  royal  armies;  and  the  kings  never  fail  to 
ascribe  to  the  support  of  Ashur  the  victories  that 
crowned  their  efforts. 

Professor  Sayce^  has  properly  emphasised  the  in- 
fluence of  this  imageless  worship  of  the  chief  deity  on 
the  development  of  religious  ideas  in  Assyria.  De- 
pendent as  Assyria  was  to  a  large  extent  upon  Baby- 
lonia for  her  culture,  her  art,  and  her  religion,  she 

^  See  p.  121.  ^  See  Plate  i8. 

3  The  Religions  of  Ancient  Egypt  and  Babylonia  (Giflford  Lec- 
tures), pp.  369-372. 


52  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

made  at  least  one  important  contribution  to  what  she 
adopted  from  the  south,  in  giving  to  Ashur  a  more 
spiritual  type,  as  it  were,  than  Enlil,  Ninib,  Shamash, 
Nergal,  Anu,  Ea,  Marduk,  or  Nebo  could  ever  claim. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  limitation  in  the  develop- 
ment of  this  more  spiritual  conception  of  divine 
power  is  marked  by  the  disfiguring  addition,  to  the 
winged  disc,  of  the  picture  of  a  man  with  a  bow  and 
arrow  within  the  circle.^  It  was  the  emblem  of  the 
military  genius  of  Assyria.  The  old  solar  deity  as 
the  protector  of  the  Assyrian  armies  had  become  es- 
sentially a  god  of  war,  and  the  royal  warriors  could 
not  resist  the  temptation  to  emphasise  by  a  direct 
appeal  to  the  eyes  the  perfect  accord  between  the  god 
and  his  subjects.  This  despiritualisation  of  the 
winged  disc  no  doubt  acted  as  a  check  on  a  conceivable 
growth  of  Ashur,  which  might  have  tended  under 
more  favourable  circumstances  towards  a  purer 
monotheistic  conception  of  the  divine  government  of 
the  universe;  for  in  his  case  the  transference  of  the 
attributes  of  all  the  other  great  gods  was  more  fully 
carried  out  than  in  the  case  of  Marduk.^  In  his 
capacity  as  a  solar  deity,  Ashur  absorbs  the  character 
of  all   other  localised  sun-gods.      Myths   in   which 

^  Frequently  on  the  Assyrian  monuments;  see  Mansell,  British 
Museum  Photographs  (Assyria),  Nos.  391,  394,  398,  etc.  Also 
on  seal  cylinders,  e.g.,  Ward,  Seal  Cylinders  of  Western  Asia,  pp. 
224,  227,  etc. 

'  See  above,  p.  40. 


Culture  and  Religion  53 

Ninib,  Enlil,  Ea,  and  Marduk  appear  as  heroes  are 
remodelled  under  Assyrian  influence  and  transferred 
to  Ashur.  We  have  traces  of  an  Assyrian  myth  of 
creation  in  which  the  sphere  of  creator  is  given  to 
Ashur.'  Ishtar,  the  great  goddess  of  fertility,  the 
mother-goddess  presiding  over  births,  becomes  Ashur's 
consort.  The  cult  of  the  other  great  gods,  of  Sha- 
mash,  Ninib,  Nergal,  Sin,  Ea,  Marduk,  and  even  En- 
lil, is  maintained  in  full  vigour  in  the  city  of  Ashur, 
and  in  the  subsequent  capital  Nineveh,^  but  these  as 
well  as  other  gods  take  on,  as  it  were,  the  colour  of 
Ashur.  They  give  the  impression  of  little  Ashurs  by 
the  side  of  the  great  one,  so  entirely  does  the  older 
solar  deity,  as  the  guardian  of  mighty  Assyrian  armies, 
and  as  the  embodiment  of  Assyria's  martial  spirit, 
overshadow  all  other  manifestations  of  divine  power. 
This  aspect  of  Ashur  receives  its  most  perfect  ex- 
pression during  the  reign  of  the  four  rulers — Sargon, 
Sennacherib,  Esarhaddon,  and  Ashurbanapal — when 
Assyrian  power  reached  its  highest  point.  The  suc- 
cess of  the  Assyrian  armies,  and  consequent  politi- 
cal aggrandisement  served  to  increase  the  glory  of 
Ashur,  to  whose  protection  and  aid  everything  was 
ascribed — but  it  is  Ashur  the  war-god,  the  warrior 


-  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  197  seq. 

*  Until  the  end  of  the  8th  century  B.C.,  with  some  in- 
terruptions during  which  Calah  was  the  official  residence, 
Ashur  remained  the  capital. 


54   Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

with  bow  and  arrow  within  the  solar  circle,  who  gains 
in  prestige  thereby,  while  the  spiritual  phase  of  the 
deity  as  symbolised  by  the  winged  disc  sinks  into 
the  background. 

For  all  this,  culture  and  religion  go  hand  in  hand 
with  political  and  material  growth,  and  the  Eu- 
phratean  civilisation  with  its  Assyrian  upper  layer 
reaches  its  zenith  in  the  reign  and  achievements  of 
Ashurbanapal.  From  the  remains  of  his  edifices  with 
their  pictorial  embellishment  of  elaborate  sculptures 
on  the  soft  limestone  slabs  that  lined  the  walls  of 
palaces  and  temples,  we  can  reconstruct  the  architec- 
ture and  art  of  the  entire  historical  period  from  the 
remote  past  to  his  own  days;  and  through  the  con- 
tents of  the  library  of  clay  tablets  we  can  trace  the 
unfolding  of  culture  from  the  days  of  Sargon,  Gudea, 
and  Hammurapi,  through  the  sway  of  the  Cassites, 
and  the  later  native  dynasties  down  to  the  time  when 
the  leadership  passes  for  ever  into  the  hands  of  the 
cruder  but  more  energetic  and  fearless  Assyrians. 
The  figure  of  Ashurbanapal  rises  before  us  as  the  heir 
of  all  the  ages — the  embodiment  of  the  genius  of  the 
Babylonian- Assyrian  civilisation,  with  its  strength 
and  its  weaknesses,  its  spiritual  force  and  its  ma- 
terialistic form. 

After  the  death  of  Ashurbanapal  in  626  B.C.,  the 
decline  sets  in  and  proceeds  so  rapidly  as  to  suggest 
that  the  brilliancy  of  his  reign  was  merely  the  last 


Culture  and  Religion  55 

flicker  of  a  flame  whose  power  was  spent — an  artificial 
effort  to  gather  the  remaining  strength  in  the  hope- 
less endeavour  to  stimiilate  the  vitality  of  the  empire, 
exhausted  by  the  incessant  wars  of  the  past  centuries. 
Babylonia  survived  her  northern  rival  for  two 
reasons.  Forced  by  the  superior  military  power  of 
Assyria  to  a  policy  of  political  inaction  or  of  foment- 
ing trouble  for  Assyria  among  the  nations  that  were 
compelled  to  submit  to  her  control,  Babylonia  did 
not  engage  in  expeditions  for  conquest,  which  event- 
ually weaken  the  conqueror  more  than  the  conquered. 
Instead  of  war,  commerce  became  the  main  occupa- 
tion of  the  inhabitants  of  the  south.  Through  the 
spread  of  its  products  and  wares,  its  culture,  art,  and 
religious  influence  were  extended  in  all  directions. 
The  more  substantial  character  of  the  southern 
civilisation,  the  result  of  an  uninterrupted  develop- 
ment for  many  centuries,  and  not,  as  in  the  case  of 
Assyria,  a  somewhat  artificial  albeit  successfiil  graft, 
lent  to  Babylonia  a  certain  stability,  and  provided 
her  with  a  reserve  force,  which  enabled  her  to  with- 
stand the  loss  of  a  great  share  of  her  political  inde- 
pendence. After  the  fall  of  Assyria,  there  came  to 
the  fore  a  district  of  the  Euphrates  Valley  in  the  ex- 
treme south — known  as  Chaldea — which  had  always 
maintained  a  certain  measure  of  its  independence, 
even  during  the  period  of  strongest  union  among  the 
Euphratean  states,  and  not  infrequently  had  given  the 


56  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

rulers  of  Babylon  considerable  trouble.  The  Baby- 
lonian empire  was  also  shaken  by  the  blow  which 
brought  Assyria  to  the  ground.  The  Assyrian  yoke, 
to  be  sure,  was  thrown  off;  but  in  the  confusion  which 
ensued,  a  Chaldean  general,  Nabopolassar,  took  ad- 
vantage of  it  to  make  himself  the  political  master  of 
the  Euphrates  Valley.  ^  By  means  of  a  treaty  of 
alliance  with  Elam  to  the  east,  Nabopolassar  main- 
tained himself  on  the  throne  for  twenty  years,  and 
on  his  death  in  604  B.C.,  his  crown  descended  to  his 
son — the  famous  Nebuchadnezzar.  Having  won  his 
spurs  as  a  general  during  a  military  expedition  against 
Egypt,  which  took  place  before  his  father's  death,  Ne- 
buchadnezzar was  seized  with  the  ambition  to  found  a 
world-wide  empire — a  dream  which  had  proved  fatal 
to  Assyria.  Palestine  and  Syria  were  conquered  by 
him,  and  Egypt  humbled,  but  the  last  years  of  his 
reign  were  devoted  chiefly  to  building  up  Babylon, 
Borsippa,  and  Sippar  in  the  hope  of  restoring  the  an- 
cient grandeur  of  those  political  and  religious  centres. 
On  Babylon  his  chief  efforts  were  concentrated; 
the  marvellous  constructions  to  which  it  owes  its  emi- 
nence in  tradition  and  legend  were  his  achievement. 
It  was  he  who  erected  the  famous  "  Hanging  Gardens," 

»  Because  this  neo-Babylonian  dynasty  was  of  Chaldean  ori- 
gin, the  term  Chaldea  became  the  designation  of  the  Euphrates 
Valley  in  Greek  and  Roman  writers.  The  term  is  obviously 
a  misnomer,  and  is  now  generally  replaced  by  Babylonia,  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  itself  a  later  substitute  for  Burner  and  Akkad. 


Culture  and  Religion  57 

a  series  of  raised  terraces  covered  with  various  kinds 
of  foliage,  and  enumerated  among  the  "Seven  Won- 
ders of  the  World."  A  sacred  street  for  processions 
was  built  by  him  leading  from  the  temple  of  Marduk 
through  the  city  and  across  the  river  to  Borsippa — 
the  seat  of  the  cult  of  Nebo,  whose  close  association 
with  Marduk  is  symbolised  by  their  relationship  of 
son  and  father.  This  street,  along  which  on  solemn 
occasions  the  gods  were  carried  in  procession,  was 
lined  with  magnificent  glazed  coloured  tiles,  the  de- 
signs on  which  were  lions  of  almost  life  size,  as  the 
symbol  of  Marduk.^  The  workmanship  belongs  to 
the  best  era  of  Euphratean  art.  The  high  towers 
known  as  Zikkurats,^  attached  to  the  chief  temples 
at  Babylon  and  Borsippa,  were  rebuilt  by  him  and 
carried  to  a  height  greater  than  ever.  By  erecting 
and  beautifying  shrines  to  all  the  chief  deities  within 
the  precincts  of  Marduk's  temple,  and  thus  enlarging 
the  sacred  area  once  more  to  the  dimensions  of  a  pre- 
cinct of  the  city,  he  wished  to  emphasise  the  com- 
manding position  of  Marduk  in  the  pantheon.  In 
this  way,  he  gave  a  final  illustration  of  how  indis- 
solubly  religious  interests  were  bound  up  with  politi- 
cal aggrandisement. 

*  See  Plate  30,  Fig.  i  ;  and  also  Bezold,  KuUurwelt  des 
Alien  Orients  (Leipzig,  1910),  p.  48,  and  the  writer's  article, 
"  The  Palace  and  Temple  of  Nebuchadnezzar,"  in  Harper's 
Magazine  for  April,  1902. 

'  See  p.  282  seq. 


58   Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

The  impression,  so  clearly  stamped  upon  the  ear- 
liest Euphratean  civilisation, — the  close  bond  be- 
tween culture  and  religion, — thus  marks  with  equal 
sharpness  the  last  scene  in  her  eventful  history.  In 
Nebuchadnezzar's  days,  as  in  those  of  Sargon  and 
Hammurapi,  religion  lay  at  the  basis  of  Babylonia's 
intellectual  achievements.  The  priests  attached  to 
the  service  of  the  gods  continued  to  be  the  teachers 
and  guides  of  the  people.  The  system  of  education 
that  grew  up  around  the  temples  was  maintained  till 
the  end  of  the  neo-Babylonian  empire,  and  even  for  a 
time  survived  its  fall.  The  temple-schools  as  in- 
tegral parts  of  the  priestly  organisation  had  given  rise 
to  such  sciences  as  w^ere  then  cultivated — astronomy, 
medicine,  and  jurisprudence.  All  were  either  at- 
tached directly  to  religious  beliefs,  as  medicine  to 
incantations,  astronomy  to  astrology,  jurisprudence 
to  divine  oracles,  or  were  so  harmoniously  bound  up 
with  the  beliefs  as  almost  to  obscure  the  more  purely 
secular  aspects  of  these  mental  disciplines.  The  priests 
continued  to  be  the  physicians,  judges,  and  scribes. 
Medicinal  remedies  were  prescribed  with  incantations 
and  ritualistic  accompaniments.  The  study  of  the 
heavens,  despite  considerable  advance  in  the  know- 
ledge of  the  movements  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  planets, 
continued  to  be  cultivated  for  the  purpose  of  securing, 
by  means  of  observations,  omens  that  might  furnish 
a  clue  to  the  intention  and  temper  of  the  gods. 


Culture  and  Religion  59 

On  the  death  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  561  B.C.,  the 
decHne  of  the  neo-Babylonian  empire  sets  in  and  pro- 
ceeds rapidly,  as  in  Assyria  the  decline  began  after 
the  death  of  her  grand  monargue.  Internal  dissensions 
and  rivalries  among  the  priests  of  Babylon  and  Sippar 
divided  the  land.  The  glory  of  the  Chaldean  revival 
was  of  short  duration,  and  in  the  year  539  B.C., 
Nabonnedos,  the  last  native  king  of  Babylon,  was 
forced  to  yield  to  the  new  power  coming  from  Elam. 
It  was  the  same  old  enemy  of  the  Euphrates  Valley, 
only  in  a  new  garb,  that  appeared  when  Cyrus  stood 
before  the  gates  of  Babylon.  Nabonnedos  gave  the 
weight  of  his  influence  to  the  priestly  party  of  Sip- 
par.  In  revenge,  the  priests  of  Babylon  abetted  the 
advance  of  Cyrus  who  was  hailed  by  them  as  the  de- 
liverer of  Marduk.  With  scarcely  an  attempt  at 
resistance,  the  capital  yielded,  and  Cyrus  marched  in 
triumph  to  the  temple  of  Marduk.  The  great  change 
had  come  so  nearly  imperceptibly  that  men  hardly 
realised  that  with  Cyrus  on  the  throne  of  Babylon  a 
new  era  was  ushered  in.  In  the  wake  of  Cyrus  came 
a  new  force  in  culture,  accompanied  by  a  reli- 
gious faith  that,  in  contrast  to  the  Babylonian- Assy- 
rian polytheism  with  its  elaborate  cult  and  ritual, 
appeared  rationalistic — almost  coldly  rationalistic. 
Far  more  important  than  the  change  of  government 
from  Chaldean  to  Persian  control  of  the  Euphrates 
Valley  and  of  its  dependencies  was  the  conquest  of  the 


6o   Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

old  Babylonian  religion  by  Mazdeism  or  Zoroastrian- 
ism,  which,  though  it  did  not  become  the  official  cult, 
deprived  the  worship  of  Marduk,  Nebo,  Shamash,  and 
the  other  gods  of  much  of  its  vitality. 

With  its  assertion  of  a  single  great  power  for  good 
as  the  monarch  of  the  universe,  Zoroastrianism  ap- 
proached closely  the  system  of  Hebrew  monotheism, 
as  unfolded  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets.  There  was  only  one  attribute  which  the 
god  of  Zoroastrianism,  known  as  Ahura-Mazda,  did 
not  possess.  He  was  all- wise,  all-good,  but  not  all- 
powerful,  or  rather  not  yet  all-powerful.  Opposing 
the  power  of  light  there  was  the  power  of  darkness 
and  evil  which  could  only  after  the  lapse  of  ffions  be 
overcome  by  Ahura-Mazda.  But  this  personifica- 
tion of  evil  as  a  god,  Ahriman,  was  merely  the  Zoro- 
astrian  form  of  the  solution  of  a  problem  which  has 
been  a  stumbling-block  to  all  advanced  and  spirit- 
ualised religions: — the  undeniable  existence  of  evil 
in  the  world.  The  chief  power  of  the  universe  con- 
ceived of  as  beneficent  could  not  also  be  the  cause  of 
evil.  It  is  the  problem  that  underlies  the  discus- 
sions in  the  Book  of  Job,  the  philosophical  author  of 
which  could  not  content  himself  with  the  conventional 
view  that  evil  is  in  all  cases  a  punishment  for  sins,  since 
suffering  so  frequently  was  inflicted  on  the  innocent, 
while  the  guilty  escaped.  The  Book  of  Job  leaves  the 
question  open,  and  intimates  that  it  is  an  insoluble 


Culture  and  Religion  6i 

mystery.  Zoroastrianism  admits  that  the  good  can- 
not be  the  cause  of  the  evil,  but  the  aim  of  the  good  is 
to  overcome  evil  and  eventually  it  will  be  able  to  do  so. 
The  dualism  of  Zoroastrianism  is  merely  a  temporary 
compromise,  and,  essentially,  it  is  monotheistic' 

Zoroastrianism  recognised  the  reign  of  inexorable 
though  inscrutable  law  in  the  world,  and  when  it 
began  to  exercise  its  influence  on  Babylonia,  the  be- 
lief in  gods  acting  according  to  caprice  was  bound 
to  be  seriously  affected.  So  it  happened  that  al- 
though the  culture  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  sur- 
vived the  fall  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  and  for  many 
centuries  continued  to  exercise  its  sway  far  beyond 
its  natural  boundaries,  the  religion,  while  formally 
maintained  in  the  old  centres,  gradually  decayed. 
The  new  spiritual  force  that  had  entered  the  country 
effectually  dissolved  the  long-existing  bond  between 
cvilture  and  rehgion.  The  profound  change  of  spirit 
brought  about  through  the  advent  of  Zoroastrianism 
is  illustrated  by  the  rise  of  a  genuine  science  of  astron- 

^  Though  lying  beyond  the  scope  of  our  immediate  subject, 
it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  emphasise  the  influence  of  Zoroas- 
trianism in  leading  to  the  establishment  of  the  monotheism  of 
the  Jewish  prophets.  The  sympathy  of  Cyrus  for  the  Jews  was 
due,  in  part  at  least,  to  the  similarity  of  the  conceptions  of  divine 
government  in  Zoroastrianism  and  post-exilic  Judaism;  the 
attitude  of  such  prophets  as  the  second  Isaiah  towards  Cyrus 
was  not  prompted  solely  by  the  favour  shown  the  Jews  by 
Cyrus,  but  arose  in  part  from  the  bond  of  sympathy  between 
Zoroastrianism  and  monotheistic  Judaism. 


62   Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

omy,  based  on  the  recognition  of  law  in  the  heavens, 
in  place  of  astrology,  which,  in  its  Babylonian  form 
at  least,  had  a  meaning  only  as  long  as  it  was  assumed 
that  the  gods,  personified  by  the  heavenly  bodies, 
stood  above  law.^  The  era  was  approaching  when 
the  sciences  one  by  one  would  cut  loose  from  the  lead- 
ing strings  of  religious  beliefs  and  religious  doctrines. 
"When,  two  centuries  later,  another  wave  of  culture 
coming  from  the  Occident  swept  over  the  entire 
Orient,  it  gave  a  further  impetus  to  the  divorce  of 
culture  from  religion  in  the  Euphrates  Valley.  Hel- 
lenic culture,  brought  to  Babylonia  by  Alexander  the 
Great  ^  and  his  successors,  meant  the  definite  in- 
troduction of  scientific  thought;  and  thereby  a  fatal 
blow  was  given  to  what  was  left  of  the  foundations  of 
the  beliefs  that  had  been  current  in  Babylonia  for 
several  millenniums.  Traces  of  the  worship  of  some 
of  the  old  gods  of  Babylonia  are  to  be  found  almost 
up  to  the  threshold  of  our  era,  but  it  was  merely  the 
shell  of  the  once  dominant  religion  that  was  left. 
The  culture  of  the  country  had  become  thoroughly 
saturated  with  Greek  elements,  and  what  Zoroastrian- 
ism  had  left  of  the  religion  that  once  reflected  the  cul- 
ture of  the  Euphrates  Valley  was  all  but  obliterated 
by  the  introduction  of  Greek  modes  of  thought  and 
life,  and  of  Greek  views  of  the  universe. 

^  See  p.  253  seq. 

^Alexander  conquered  Babylonia  in  331  B.C. 


LECTURE   II 

THE  PANTHEON 


THE  religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  passes,  in 
the  course  of  its  long  development,  through  the 
various  stages  of  the  animistic  conception  of  nature 
towards  a  concentration  of  the  divine  Powers  in 
a  few  supernatural  Beings.  Naturally,  when  our 
knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  Euphrates  Valley  be- 
gins, we  are  long  past  the  period  when  practically  all 
religion  possessed  by  the  people  was  summed  up  in 
the  personification  of  the  powers  of  nature,  and  in 
some  simple  ceremonies  revolving  largely  around  two 
ideas.  Taboo  and  Totemism.  The  organisation  of 
even  the  simplest  form  of  government,  involving  the 
division  of  the  community  into  little  groups  or  clans, 
with  authority  vested  in  certain  favoured  individuals, 
carries  with  it  as  a  necessary  corollary  a  selection 
from  the  various  personified  powers  who  make  them- 
selves felt  in  the  incidents  and  accidents  of  daily  life. 
This  selection  leads  \iltimately  to  the  formation  of  the 
pantheon.     The  gods  that  are  prominent  in  the  cult 

63 


64  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  a  religion,  in  both  its  official  and  its  popular 
forms,  may  be  defined  as  the  remainder  of  the  large 
and  indefinite  number  of  Powers  recognised  every- 
where by  primitive  man.  While  in  the  early  animistic 
stage  of  religion  the  Power  or  spirit  that  mani- 
fests itself  in  the  life  of  the  tree  is  put  on  the  same 
plane  with  the  spirit  supposed  to  reside  in  a  flowing 
stream,  or  with  the  Power  that  manifests  itself  in  the 
heat  of  the  sun  or  in  the  severity  of  a  storm,  repeated 
experience  gradually  teaches  man  to  differentiate  be- 
tween such  Powers  as  markedly  and  almost  continu- 
ously affect  his  life,  and  such  as  only  incidentally 
force  themselves  on  his  notice.  The  process  of  selec- 
tion receives,  as  has  been  already  intimated,  a  strong 
impetus  by  the  creation  of  little  groups,  arising  from 
the  extension  of  the  family  into  a  community.  These 
two  factors,  repeated  experience  and  social  evolution, 
while  perhaps  not  the  only  ones  involved,  constitute 
the  chief  elements  in  the  unfolding  of  the  religious 
life  of  a  people. 

In  the  case  of  the  religion  of  Babylonia  and  As- 
syria we  find  the  process  of  selection  leading  in 
the  main  to  the  cult  of  the  sun  and  the  moon,  of  the 
Power  that  manifests  itself  in  vegetation,  and  of  the 
Power  that  is  seen  in  storms  and  in  bodies  of  water. 
Sun,  moon,  vegetation,  storms,  and  water  constitute 
the  forces  with  which  man  is  brought  into  frequent, 
if  not  constant,  contact.     Agriculture  and  commerce 


The  Pantheon  65 

being  two  leading  pursuits  in  the  civilisation  that  de- 
veloped in  the  Euphrates  Valley,  it  is  natural  to  find 
the  chief  deities  worshipped  in  the  various  political 
centres  of  the  earliest  period  of  Babylonian  history  to 
be  personifications  of  one  or  the  other  of  these  five 
Powers.  The  reasons  for  the  selection  of  the  sun  and 
moon  are  obvious.  The  two  great  luminaries  of  the 
heavens  would  appeal  to  a  people  even  before  a  stage 
of  settled  habitation,  coincident  with  the  beginnings 
of  agriculture,  would  be  reached.  Even  to  the  home- 
less nomad  the  moon  would  form  a  guide  in  his  wan- 
derings, and  as  a  measure  of  time  would  be  singled  out 
among  the  Powers  that  permanently  and  continuously 
enter  into  the  life  of  the  group  and  of  the  individual. 
With  an  advance  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  no- 
madic stage,  marked  by  the  domestication  of  animals, 
with  its  accompanying  pastoral  life,  the  natural  vegeta- 
tion of  the  meadows  would  assume  a  larger  import- 
ance, while,  when  the  stage  is  reached  when  man  is  no 
longer  dependent  upon  what  nature  produces  of  her 
own  accord  but  when  he,  himself,  becomes  an  active 
partner  in  the  work  of  nature,  his  dependency  upon  the 
Power  that  he  recognises  in  the  sun  would  be  more 
emphatically  brought  home  to  him.  Long  experi- 
ence will  teach  him  how  much  his  success  or  failure  in 
the  tilling  of  the  soil  must  depend  upon  the  favour  of 
the  sun,  and  of  the  rains  in  the  storms  of  the  winter 
season.  Distinguishing  between  the  various  factors 
5 


66  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

involved  in  bringing  about  his  welfare,  he  would 
reach  the  conception  of  a  great  triad — the  sun,  the 
power  of  vegetation  and  fertility  residing  in  the  earth, 
and  the  power  that  manifests  itself  in  storms  and 
rains. 

All  this  applies  with  peculiar  force  to  the  climate 
of  the  Euphrates  Valley,  with  its  two  seasons,  the 
rainy  and  the  dry,  dividing  the  year.  The  welfare 
of  the  country  depended  upon  the  abundant  rains, 
which,  beginning  in  the  late  fall,  continued  unin- 
terruptedly for  several  months,  frequently  accom- 
panied by  thunder,  lightning,  and  strong  winds.  In 
the  earliest  period  to  which  we  can  trace  back  the  his- 
tory of  the  Euphrates  Valley  we  find  entire  districts 
covered  with  a  network  of  canals,  serving  the  double 
piirpose  of  avoiding  the  destructive  floods  occasioned 
by  the  overflow  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris, 
and  of  securing  a  more  direct  irrigation  of  the  fields. 
To  the  sun,  earth,  and  storms  there  would  thus  be 
added,  as  a  fourth  survival  from  the  animistic  stage, 
the  Power  residing  in  the  two  great  streams,  and  in 
the  Persian  Gulf,  which  to  the  Babylonians  was  the 
"Father  of  Waters."  Commerce,  following  in  the 
wake  of  agriculture,  would  lend  an  additional  im- 
portance to  the  watery  element  as  a  means  of  trans- 
portation, and  the  sense  of  this  importance  woiild 
find  a  natural  expression  in  the  cult  of  water  deities. 
While  the  chief  gods  of  the  pantheon  thus  evolved  are 


The  Pantheon  67 

identical  with  the  Powers  or  spirits  that  belong  to  the 
animistic  stage  of  religion,  we  may  properly  limit  the 
designation  "deities"  to  that  period  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  religious  life  with  which  we  are  here 
concerned  and  which  represents,  to  emphasise  the 
point  once  more,  a  natural  selection  of  a  relatively 
small  number  out  of  a  promiscuous  and  almost  un- 
limited group  of  Powers. 

It  is  perhaps  more  or  less  a  matter  of  accident  that 
we  find  in  one  of  the  centres  of  ancient  Babylonia  the 
chief  deity  worshipped  as  a  sun-god,  in  another  as  a 
personification  of  the  moon,  and  in  a  third  as  the  god- 
dess of  the  earth.  We  have,  however,  no  means  of 
tracing  the  association  of  ideas  that  led  to  the  choice 
of  Shamash,  the  sun-god,  as  the  patron  deity  of 
Larsa  and  Sippar,  the  moon-god  Sin  as  patron  of  Ur 
and  Harran,  and  Ishtar,  the  great  mother-goddess, 
the  personification  of  the  power  of  vegetation  in  the 
earth  and  of  fertility  among  animals  and  mankind, 
as  the  centre  of  the  cult  in  Uruk.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  can  follow  the  association  of  ideas  that  led 
the  ancient  people  of  the  city  of  Eridu,  lying  at  one 
time  at  or  near  the  mouth  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  to 
select  a  water  deity  known  as  Ea  as  the  patron  deity 
of  the  place.  In  the  case  of  the  most  important  of 
the  storm  deities,  Enlil  or  EUil',  associated  with  the 

I  The  n  of  Enlil  is  assimilated  to  the  following  /  as  is  shown 
by  the  form  Ellinos  given  to  this  deity  in  Damascius'  de  primis 


68  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

city  of  Nippur,  we  can  also  follow  the  process  that  re- 
sulted in  this  association;  but  this  process  is  of  so 
special  and  peculiar  a  character  that  it  merits  to  be 
set  forth  in  ampler  detail. 

We  have  seen^  that  the  city  of  Nippur  occupied  a 
special  place  among  the  older  centres  of  the  Eu- 
phrates Valley,  marked  not  by  any  special  political 
predominance — though  this  may  once  have  been  the 
case — but  by  a  striking  religious  significance.  Cor- 
responding to  this  position  of  the  city,  we  find  the 
chief  deity  of  the  place,  even  in  the  oldest  period, 
occupying  a  commanding  place  in  the  pantheon  and 
retaining  a  theoretical  leadership  even  after  Enlil  was 
forced  to  yield  his  prerogatives  to  Marduk.  The 
name  Enlil  is  composed  of  two  Sumerian  elements  and 
signifies  the  "lord  of  the  storm."  His  character  as 
a  storm-god,  thus  revealed  in  his  name,  is  further 
illustrated  by  traits  ascribed  to  him.  The  storm 
constitutes  his  weapon.  He  is  frequently  described 
and  addressed  as  the  "Great  Mountain."  His  tem- 
ple at  Nippur  is  known  as  E-Kur,  "  Mountain  House," 
which  term,  because  of  the  supreme  importance  of  this 

Principiis  (ed.  Kopp,  1826),  cap.  125,  and  by  Aramaic  endorse- 
ments to  business  documents  of  the  Persian  period.  See  the 
article,  "ElHl,  the  god  of  Nippur"  {American  Journal  of  Semitic 
Lang.,  xxiii.,  pp.  269-279),  by  Professor  Clay,  who  showed  that 
the  name  of  this  deity  was  at  all  times  Enlil  or  Ellil,  and  never 
Bel  as  had  hitherto  been  assumed. 
» Above,  p.  18. 


PI.  14.  Types  of  Enlil  the  Chief  God  of  Nippur,  and  his  Consort  Ninlil. 
Terra-cotta  figures  found  by  Peters  at  Nippur,  and  now  in  the 
Museum  of  Archaeology  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
figure  to  the  left  is  Enlil,  the  other  two  Ninlil.  See  Peters,  Nippur, 
i.,  p.  128,  and  Hilprecht,  Excavations  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia, 
p.  342. 


'_j-j-,j_4^-:i 


y  - 


Types  of  Enlil,  the  Chief  God  of  Nippur,  and  of 
his  Consort  Ninlil 


The  Pantheon  69 

Temple,  became,  as  we  have  seen,^  the  general  name 

for  a  sanctuary.  Since,  moreover,  his  consort  Nin- 
lil  is  designated  as  Nin-Kharsag,  "Lady  of  the  Moun- 
tain," there  are  substantial  reasons  for  assuming  that 
his  original  seat  was  on  the  top  of  some  mountain,  as 
is  so  generally  the  case  with  storm-deities  like  Jahweh, 
the  god  of  the  Hebrews,  the  Hittite  god  Teshup, 
Zeus,  and  others.  There  being  no  mountains  in  the 
Euphrates  Valley,  the  further  conclusion  is  war- 
ranted that  Enlil  w^as  the  god  of  a  people  whose  home 
was  in  a  mountainous  region,  and  who  brought  their 
god  with  them  when  they  came  to  the  Euphrates 
Valley,  just  as  the  Hebrews  carried  the  cult  of  Jahweh 
with  them  when  they  passed  from  Mt.  Sinai  into 
Palestine.  Nippur  is  so  essentially  a  Sumerian  set- 
tlement that  we  must  perforce  associate  the  earliest 
cult  of  Enlil  with  the  non-Semitic  element  in  the 
population.  Almost  the  only  region  from  which 
the  Sumerians  could  have  come  was  the  east  or 
the  north-east — the  district  which  in  a  general  way 
we  may  designate  by  the  name  Elam,  though  the  Su- 
merians, like  the  Cassites  in  later  days,  might  have 
originated  in  a  region  considerably  to  the  north  of 
Elam.  While,  as  has  been  pointed  out,^  it  is  not 
ordinarily  possible  to  separate  the  Sumero- Akkadian 
civilisation  into  its  component  parts — Semitic  and 
non-Semitic — and  more  particularly  in  reference  to 
^  Above,  p.  18,  note  2.  *  Above,  p.  11  seg^. 


70  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

gods,  beliefs,  and  rites  is  any  detailed  attempt  to 
exactly  differentiate  between  the  additions  made  by 
one  group  or  another  destined  to  failure,  yet  in  some 
instances  it  is  possible  to  do  so.  The  god  Enlil  is 
an  example  of  a  deity  whose  Sumerian  origin  may 
be  set  down  as  certain.  His  mountainous  origin  is 
indicated  in  an  ancient  lamentation-hymn  in  which 
he  is  addressed  as  the  "offspring  of  the  mountain,"  ^ 
while  the  seven  chief  names  given  to  him  clearly 
demonstrate  his  Sumerian  origin.  Many  of  these 
Sumerian  hymns,  forming  part  of  a  ritual  of  lamenta- 
tion, give  an  enumeration  of  these  names  :^ 

O  lord  of  the  lands! 

O  lord  of  the  Hving  command! 

O  divine  EnUl,  father  of  Sumer! 

O  shepherd  of  the  dark-headed  people! J 

O  hero  who  seest  by  thine  own  power! 

Strong  lord,  directing  mankind! 

Hero,  who  causest  multitudes  to  repose  in  peace! 

The  terms  in  which  he  is  addressed,  however,  re- 
flect also  the  broader  and  more  general  character 

^  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  in  the  British  Museum,  Part  xv.,  pi. 

11,3- 

^  E.g.,  Reisner,  Sumerisch  -  Bahylonische  Hymnen,  No.  13, 
1-7;  Cuneif.  Texts,  xv.,  pi.  10,  3-8  (six  names),  pi.  13,  3-9,  etc. 
Frequently,  in  the  adaptation  of  this  old  ritual  to  the  Marduk 
cult,  direct  references  to  Marduk  and  the  gods  grouped  around 
Marduk  are  added,  as  well  as  mention  of  cities  like  Sippar,  Baby- 
lon, and  Borsippa — likewise  with  a  view  to  adapting  the  Nippur 
ritual  to  other  centres  and  to  later  conditions.     See  Lecture  V. 

3  A  frequent  designation  of  the  Sumerians,  which  later  becomes 
synonymous  with  mankind  in  general. 


The  Pantheon  71 

given  to  him,  pointing  to  a  deity  who  has  far  out- 
grown the  original  proportions  of  a  local  god  with 
limited  sway.  The  great  antiquity  of  the  Enlil  cult 
at  Nippur  was  probably  the  most  important  factor 
in  giving  to  this  deity  and  his  temple  such  signifi- 
cance in  the  e3^es  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Euphrates 
Valley.  As  he  pertained  to  a  great  religious  centre 
the  control  whereof  stirred  the  ambition  of  the  vari- 
ous rulers  of  Euphratean  states,  it  was  a  natural 
tendency  to  assign  to  Enlil  attributes  and  qualities 
belonging  of  right  to  personifications  of  natural  powers 
other  than  the  one  which  he  originally  represented. 
Transferred  from  his  original  mountain  home  to  a 
valley  dependent  for  its  support  on  the  cultivation  of 
the  soil,  Enlil  assumes  the  traits  of  the  Power  that 
fosters  vegetation.  This  association  becomes  all  the 
more  likely  in  view  of  the  climate  of  the  Euphrates 
Valley,  where  fertility  is  dependent  upon  the  storms 
and  rains  of  winter  which  Enlil  so  distinctly  personi- 
fied. In  these  same  ancient  compositions  he  is, 
therefore,  addressed  also  as  the  "lord  of  vegetation," 
as  well  as  the  "lord  of  storms."  The  storm,  sweep- 
ing over  the  land,  is  personified  as  his  "word"  or 
"command"  and  described  as  bringing  on  devasta- 
tion and  ruin,  overwhelming  the  meadows  in  their 
beauty,  flooding  the  crops,  and  laying  waste  the 
habitations  of  men.  The  god  is  pictured  as  a  rushing 
deluge  that  brings  woe  to  mankind,  a  torrent  sweep- 


^2  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

ing  away  buttresses  and  dikes,  an  onrushing  storm 

which  none  can  oppose. * 

The  word  that  causes  the  heavens  on  high  to  tremble, 
The  word  that  makes  the  earth  below  to  quake, 
The  word  that  brings  destruction  to  the  Annunaki. 
His  word  is  beyond  the  diviner,  beyond  the  seer, 
His  word  is  a  tempest  without  a  rival. 

The  power  residing  in  his  word  is  well  summed  up  in 

a  refrain :  ^ 

The  word  of  the  lord  the  heavens  cannot  endure, 

The  word  of  Enlil  the  earth  cannot  endure. 

The  heavens  cannot  endure  the  stretching  forth  of  his  hand. 

The  earth  cannot  endure  the  setting  forth  of  his  foot. 

But  it  is  this  same  word  which  elsewhere^  is  de- 
scribed as  having  created  the  world,  as  having  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  earth,  and  called  the  upper 
world  into  existence.  His  character  as  a  god  of 
vegetation  is  directly  indicated  in  another  hymn 
which  opens  as  follows:"* 

O  Enlil,  Councillor,  who  can  grasp  thy  power? 
Endowed  with  strength,  lord  of  the  harvest  lands! 
Created  in  the  mountains,  lord  of  the  grain  fields! 
Ruler  of  great  strength,  father  Enlil! 
The  powerful  chief  of  the  gods  art  thou, 
The  great  creator  and  sustainer  of  life! 

Among  the  ancient  Hebrews  we  have  a  parallel 
development;    where    Jahweh,  originally    a    god    of 

*  E.g.,  Reisner,  op.  oil.,  No.  i. 

'E.g.,  Reisner,  op.  cit.,  No.  13,  rev.  15-24. 

3  Reisner,  op.  cit. ,1^0.  22, rev.  13-22.  See  Langdon,  Sunterian 
and  Babylonian  Psalms,  p.  129. 

4  Cuneiform  Texts,  xv.,  pi.  11.     See  Langdon,  op.  cit.,  p.  198. 


The  Pantheon  73 

storms,  perhaps  also  of  earthquakes,  who  manifests 
himself  in  the  lightning,  and  whose  voice  is  heard  in  \ 
the  thunder,  is  magnified  into  the  creator  of  the  uni- 
verse, the  producer  of  vegetation,  and  the  protector 
of  harvests  and  of  crops.  Like  Enlil,  Jahweh  comes 
from  the  mountains.  His  seat  is  on  the  top  of  Mt. 
Sinai,  or,  as  it  is  said  in  the  Song  of  Deborah,*  on 
Mt.  Seir  in  Edom.  Traces  of  this  early  conception  of 
Jahweh  as  a  storm-god  still  linger  in  the  metaphors 
of  late  Psalms''  where  the  power  of  the  god  of  the 
universe  is  described : 

The  voice  of  Jahweh  ^  is  upon  the  waters, 
The  god  of  glory  thundereth, 
Jahweh  is  upon  the  great  waters. 
The  voice  of  Jahweh  is  full  of  power, 
The  voice  of  Jahweh  is  full  of  might, 
The  voice  of  Jahweh  breaketh  cedars, 
Jahweh  breaks  the  cedars  of  Lebanon 
and  makes  them  skip  like  a  calf, 
Lebanon  and  Sirion  like  a  young  mountain-bull. 
The  voice  of  Jahweh  hews  flames  of  fire, 
The  voice  of  Jahweh  shakes  the  wilderness, 
Jahweh  shakes  the  wilderness  of  Kadesh. 

A  vivid  description,  indeed,  of  a  storm-god  rush- 
ing onward  in  furious  haste,  uprooting  mighty  ce- 
dars and  driving  them  before  him  like  a  flock  of 
cattle!  The  voice  of  Jahweh  is  the  thunder  in  the 
storm,  and  the  flame  of  fire  is  the  lightning,  but  what 

^  Judges,  v.,  4.  ^  E.  g.,  Ps..  xxix. 

£  The  Hebrew  word  for  "voice"  might  with  equal  propriety 
be  rendered  "word." 


74  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

is  set  down  as  a  metaphor  in  this  late  composition  is 
really  the  survival  in  language  of  the  conceptions  that 
once  were  held  as  literal. 

Like  Enlil,  however,  Jahweh  assumes  also  the 
attributes  of  the  Canaanitish  deities  of  vegetation 
— the  Baals — when  the  Hebrews,  dispossessing  the 
older  inhabitants,  definitely  entered  on  the  agri- 
cultural stage.  Jahweh  himself  becomes  a  Baal  to 
whom  the  first  fruits  of  the  field  are  offered  as  a  tribute 
to  his  power  in  making  the  grass  to  grow  and  the 
fields  to  be  covered  with  verdure  (Ps.  civ.,  14).  A 
further  analogy  between  Enlil  and  Jahweh  is  sug- 
gested by  the  description  of  the  former  as  a  mighty 
ox  or  bull,  which  recalls  the  fact  that  Jahweh  was 
worshipped  in  the  northern  Hebrew  kingdom  under 
the  symbol  of  a  calf.^  An  entire  series  of  hymns 
and  lamentations  is  recognised  as  addressed  to  Enlil 
from  the  opening  words  "the  Btill  to  his  sanctuary," 
where  the  bull  designates  Enlil.  ^  In  a  fragment  of  a 
hymn,  Enlil  is  described  as  ^ 

^Jeroboam  (i  Kings,  xii.,  28)  makes  two  golden  calves,  and 
places  one  at  Bethel,  and  the  other  at  the  northern  frontier  at 
Dan,  and  tells  his  people,  "Behold  thy  god,  Israel,  who  brought 
thee  out  of  Egypt."  The  stoiy  of  the  worship  of  the  golden 
calf  in  Exodus,  chap,  xxxii.,  is  based  on  this  incident. 

*  See  Langdon,  op.  cit.,  No.  x.  Enlil  is  addressed  as  a  "bull" 
in  this  composition  (e.g.,  Langdon,  p.  113,  line  3.  See  also  pp. 
85,  127,  277,  etc.). 

3  Rawlinson,  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  of  Westerti  Asia,  iv., 
2d  ed.,  pi.  27,  No.  2.     See  Langdon,  No.  xviii. 


The  Pantheon  75 

Crouching  In  the  lands  like  a  sturdy  mountain  bull, 
Whose  horns  shine  Hke  the  brilliance  of  the  sun, 
Full  of  splendour  like  Venus  of  the  heavens. 

In  another  composition  the  refrain  reads,  "A  sturdy 
bull  art  thou."  When  we  see  votive  offerings  with 
the  figure  of  a  bull,  or  representations  of  a  crouching 
bull  with  a  human  face,  ^  we  are  tempted  to  assert 
that  they  are  symbols  of  Enlil;  and  if  this  be  so, 
further  traces  of  the  association  between  the  god  and 
the  animal  may  be  seen  both  in  the  colossal  bulls 
which  form  a  feature  of  Assyrian  art  and  were  placed 
at  the  entrance  to  temples  and  palaces,  and  in  the  bull 
as  the  decoration  of  columns  in  the  architecture  of 
the  Persian  period.^ 

The  bull  is  so  commonly  in  ancient  religions  a 
symbol  of  the  power  residing  in  the  sun  that  the  as- 
sociation of  this  animal  with  Enlil  and  Jahweh  pre- 
sumably belongs  to  the  period  when  the  original 
traits  of  these  deities  as  storm-gods  were  overlaid 
by  the  extended  conception  of  them  as  gods  of  vegeta- 
tion, presiding,  therefore,  like  the  solar  deities  over 
agricultural  life.  The  Baals  of  the  Canaanites,  we 
know,  were  personifications  of  the  sun;  and  in  the 
case   of   Nippiu:   we   can  with  reasonable   certainty 

^  See  Plate  22,  and  Heuzey,  Catalogue  des  Antiquites  Chal- 
deennes,  p.  269. 

'  Perrot  et  Chipiez,  History  of  Art  in  Persia,  p.  93,  and  facing 
pp.  294,  298,  etc. 


76  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

name  the  solar  deity,  whose  attributes  were  trans- 
ferred to  Enlil. 

By  the  side  of  Enlil  we  find  a  god  whose  name  is 
provisionally  read  Ninib  prominently  worshipped  in 
Nippur  in  the  earliest  days  to  which  we  can  trace 
back  the  history  of  that  city.  Indeed,  Ninib  belongs 
to  Nippur  quite  as  much  as  does  Enlil,  and  there  are 
reasons  for  believing  that  he  is  the  original  chief 
protecting  deity  of  the  region  who  was  replaced  by 
Enlil.  Was  he  worshipped  there  before  the  Sumerians 
brought  their  mountain  god  to  the  Euphrates  Valley? 
Prof.  Clay,  who  has  shown  that  the  real  form  of  the 
god's  name  was  En-Mashtu,  is  of  the  opinion^  that 
he  is  of  Amoritish  origin.  Without  entering  into  a 
discussion  of  this  intricate  problem,  which  would 
carry  us  too  far,  it  would  indeed  appear  that  non- 
Sumerian  influences  were  at  work  in  evolving  the 
figure  of  Ninib  or  En-Mashtu.  If  it  could  be  de- 
finitely shown,  as  Clay  assumes,  that  Mashtu  is  a 
variant  form  of  Martu, — the  common  designation  of 
Amurru  as  the  "land  of  the  west," — En-Mashtu, 
"the  lord  of  Mashtu,"  would  be  the  "Sumerian** 
designation  of  this  non-Sumerian  deity. 

In  the  systematised  pantheon  of  the  old  Babylonian 
period  Ninib  is  viewed  as  the  son  of  Enlil,  a  relation- 
ship that  expresses  the  superior  position  which  Enlil 
acquired,  and  which  is  revealed  in  the  common  desig- 

'  Amurru,  p.  121  seq. 


The  Pantheon  77 

nation  of  Nippur  as  the  "place  of  Enlil,"  though  we  find 
Nippur  described  also  as  "the  beloved  city  of  Ninib."' 
The  two  gods  in  combination,  the  storm  and  the 
sun,  stand  for  the  two  chief  forces  of  nature  that  con- 
trol the  prosperity  and  welfare  of  the  Euphrates 
Valley;  and  this  combination  was  viewed  in  terms  of 
human  relationship,  with  the  natural  consequence  of 
an  harmonious  exchange  of  their  attributes.  It  is 
from  Ninib  that  Enlil  receives  the  traits  of  a  god  of 
vegetation,  and,  in  return,  the  father  transfers  to  the 
son,  as  in  another  religious  centre  Ea  does  to  Mar- 
duk,  some  of  his  own  attributes.  Like  Enlil,  Ninib 
is  addressed  as  the  "honoured  one."  He  is  the  ex- 
alted hero  of  the  universe  and  it  is  said  of  him,  as 
it  is  said  of  Enlil,  that  "no  one  can  grasp  the  power 
of  his  word."^  A  warrior,  he  rides  forth  to  carry  out 
his  father's  command.  So  close  is  this  association 
with  Enlil  that  Ninib  even  assumes  some  of  the  traits 
belonging  to  the  father  as  the  storm-god.  In  a  com- 
position that  appears  to  be  older  than  the  days  of  Ham- 
murapi,  Ninib  is  portrayed  as  an  onrushing  storm  :^ 

In  the  thunderous  rolling  of  thy  chariot        I 
Heaven  and  earth  quake  as  thou  advancest.^ 

Most  significant,  however,  as  illustrating  the  ex- 

*  See,  e.g.,  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i-,  p.  459- 
'Reisner,  No.  i8;  Langdon,  p.  226. 

3Rawlinson,  ii.,  pi.  19,  No.  i,  obv.  16,  17;  Jastrow,  Religion 
(German  ed.),  i.,  p.  455- 


78  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

change  of  traits  between  Enlil  and  Ninib,  is  the  form 
assumed  in  an  ancient  myth  symbolising  the  conquest 
of  chaos — pictured  as  a  great  monster — by  the  Power 
that  brings  order  into  the  universe.  The  obvious  in- 
terpretation of  the  myth  is  the  triumph  of  the  sun  in 
the  spring  over  the  storms  and  torrents  of  the  winter. 
The  character  of  conqueror  belongs,  therefore,  of 
right  to  a  solar  deity  like  Ninib,  just  as  it  fits  the 
god  of  Babylon,  the  later  Marduk,  who  is  likewise 
the  sun  personified;  but  in  a  composition^  describing 
the  powerful  weapons  wielded  in  this  conflict  by 
Ninib,  we  find  among  the  names  of  the  weapons 
such  expressions  as  " storm-god  with  fifty  mouths," 
"miraculous  storm,"  "destroyer  of  mountains,"  "in- 
vincible mountain,"  which  point  unmistakably  to  a 
personification  of  the  storm,  like  Enlil.  These  designa- 
tions appear  by  the  side  of  others,  such  as  the  "  weapon 
whose  sheen  overpowers  the  land,"  "the  one  made  of 
gold  and  lapis-lazuH,"  "burning  like  fire,"  that  clearly 
belong  to  Ninib  as  the  personification  oj^  the  fiery 
sun.  The  conclusion  has  generally  been  drawn  that 
the  myth  was  originally  told  of  Enlil  and  transferred 
to  Ninib ;  but  Enlil,  as  a  god  of  the  storms  and  rains  of 
winter,  would  more  naturally  be  identified  with  the 
conquered  monster.  The  more  reasonable  assumption 
is  that  the  myth  dates  from  the  period  when  Ninib  still 
held  a  commanding  postion  in  the  "Nippur"  circle 
^  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.).  i.,  ?•  451. 


The  Pantheon  79 

of  deities,  and  that,  with  the  advance  of  Enlil  to  the 
headship  of  the  pantheon,  he  was  given  a  share  in 
the  conquest  of  chaos  as  a  necessary  condition 
of  the  creation  of  the  universe  of  law  and  order. 
Enlil  was,  accordingly,  represented  as  the  power 
behind  the  throne  who  hands  over  his  attributes — 
symbolised  by  the  storm  weapons — to  his  beloved 
son,  who  at  the  command  of  his  father  proceeds  to 
conquer  the  monster. 

We  see  the  same  process  repeated,  though  under 
somewhat  different  circumstances,  at  a  subsequent 
period  when,  in  consequence  of  the  political  ascend- 
ency of  Babylon,  Marduk  is  advanced  to  the  head  of 
the  systematised  pantheon.^  The  time-honoured 
nature  myth,  somewhat  modified  in  form,  is  trans- 
ferred to  him,  but  by  this  time  the  Ninib  cult  had 
receded  into  the  background,  and  Enlil  alone  is  in- 
troduced as  transferring  his  powers  and  attributes  to 
Marduk.  Marduk  is  represented  as  replacing  Enlil, 
from  which  one  might  conclude  that,  as  a  further 
compromise  between  Enlil  and  Ninib,  the  myth  was 
actually  told  of  both,  despite  the  incongruity  in- 
volved in  making  a  storm-god  the  conqueror  of 
chaotic  confusion.  This  is  not  only  possible  but  prob- 
able, since,  with  the  expansion  of  Enlil  into  a  god 
presiding  over  vegetation,  thus  taking  on  the  traits 
of  a  sun-god,  his  original  character  would  naturally 

^  See  above,  p.  40. 


8o  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

be  obscured.  As  he  was  the  head  of  the  pantheon, 
possessing  all  the  powers  attributed  to  other  gods,  the 
tendency  would  arise  to  make  him  the  central  figure 
of  all  myths — the  pre-eminent  hero  and  conqueror. 
At  the  same  time  Ninib,  as  the  old-time  solar  deity 
of  Nippur,  also  absorbs  the  duties  of  other  solar 
gods  worshipped  in  other  centres.  He  is  identified 
with  a  god  Ningirsu,  "the  lord  of  Girsu," — a  section 
of  Lagash — who  became  the  chief  god  of  the  district 
controlled  by  Gudea  and  his  predecessors,  of  whose 
solar  character  there  can  be  no  doubt.  In  a  certain 
hymn  Ninib,*  is  associated  not  only  with  Girsu,  which 
here  as  elsewhere  stands  for  Lagash  and  the  district 
of  which  it  was  the  centre,  but  also  with  Kish  whose 
patron  deity  was  known  as  Zamama.  In  this  same 
composition^  he  is  identified  also  with  Nergal,  the 
solar  deity  of  Uruk,  with  Lugal-Marada,  "King  of 
Marada,"  the  designation  of  the  solar  god  localised 
in  Marada,  and  with  the  sun-god  of  Isin.  The  god 
Ninib  appears  to  have  become  in  fact  a  general  desig- 
nation for  the  sun  and  the  sun-god,  though  subse- 
quently replaced  by  Babbar,  "the  shining  one,"  the 
solar  deity  of  Sippar.  This  title  in  its  Semitic 
form,  Shamash,  eventually  became  the  general  des- 
ignation for  the  "sun"  because  of  the  prominence 
which  Sippar,  through  the  close  association  between 

»  Reisner,  No.  i8.     See  Langdon,  p.  226. 
'  See  also  Langdon,  pp.  146,  164-166,  208, 


The  Pantheon  8i 

Sippar  and  Babylon,  acquired  as  a  centre  of  the  sun 
cult. 

II 

Back  of  Enlil  and  Ninib,  however,  there  lies  still 
another  deity  who  in  an  ancient  inscription  is  called 
the  "beloved  father"  of  Enlil.  This  deity  is  Anu^ 
whose  cult  was  specially  associated  with  the  city  of 
Uruk.  While  in  the  active  cults  of  Babylonia  and 
Assyria  Anu  is  comparatively  inconspicuous,  the 
position  assigned  to  him  in  the  systematised  pantheon 
is  most  significant.  As  early  as  the  days  of  Lugal- 
zaggisi^  we  find  the  endeavour  made  to  group  the  great 
gods  recognised  in  connection  with  the  important 
political  centres  into  a  kind  of  theological  system — 
an  endeavour  that  reveals  the  intellectual  activity  of 
the  priests  at  this  early  period.  In  this  grouping 
Anu  is  given  the  first  place,  and  Enlil  the  second. 
Anu  and  Enlil,  together  with  Ea,  form  a  triad  sum- 
marising, as  we  shall  presently  see,  the  three  divisions 
of  the  universe — the  heavens,  the  earth  (together 
with  the  region  immediately  above  it) ,  and  the  waters 
flowing  around  and  under  the  earth.  But  a  god  of 
the  heavens  is  an  abstraction,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
suppose  that  this  should  have  been  the  original  view 
taken  of  Anu.     Popular  fancy  deals  with  realities  and 

^  See  Thureau-Dangin,  Sumerisch-Akkadische  Konigsin-schrif- 
ten,  p.  154. 
6 


82  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

with  personified  powers  whose  workings  are  seen  and 
felt.  It  would  hardly,  therefore,  have  evolved  the 
view  that  there  was  a  power  to  be  identified  with  the 
heavens  as  a  whole,  of  which  the  azure  sky  is  a  sym- 
bol, as  little  as  it  would  personify  the  earth  as  a 
whole  or  the  bodies  of  waters  as  a  whole.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  state  the  implications  involved  to  recog- 
nise that  the  conception  of  a  triad  of  gods  corre- 
sponding to  three  theoretical  divisions  of  the  universe 
is  a  bit  of  learned  speculation.  It  smacks  of  the 
school.  The  conception  of  a  god  of  heaven  fits  in, 
moreover,  with  the  comparatively  advanced  period 
when  the  seats  of  the  gods  were  placed  in  the  skies, 
and  the  gods  identified  with  the  stars.  Such  an 
astral  theology,  however,  is  not  a  part  of  the  earlier 
religious  beliefs  of  the  Babylonians;  it  reflects  the 
later  conditions  produced  under  the  influence  of  the 
religious  system  devised  in  the  temple  schools  of 
one  or  another  centre.^  The  deities  popularly 
recognised,  particularly  in  the  earlier  period,  are 
personifications,  each  of  some  definite  power,  of  the 
sun,  of  the  moon,  of  the  water,  of  the  storms,  or  of  the 
fields,  as  the  case  may  be.  Analogy,  therefore,  taken 
in  connection  with  the  great  antiquity  of  Uruk,  the 
seat  of  Anu  worship,  justifies  the  assumption  that 
Anu  was  originally  the  personification  of  some  defi- 
nite power  of  nature;  and  everything  points  to  this 
'  See  p.  209,  seq. 


The  Pantheon  83 

power  having  been  the  sun  in  the  heavens.  Starting 
from  this  point  of  view,  we  can  understand  how  the 
great  luminary  of  heaven  should  have  been  identified 
with  the  heavens  in  an  artificially  devised  theological 
system,  just  as  Enlil  became  in  this  system  the  desig- 
nation of  the  earth  and  of  the  region  above  the  earth 
viewed  as  a  whole. 

Anu  and  Enlil — sun-god  and  storm-god — would 
thus  represent  the  same  combination  as  was  in 
later  times  represented  by  Shamash  and  Adad — like- 
wise sun-god  and  storm-god  respectively, — who  are 
so  constantly  associated  together.^  The  two  would 
stand  again  for  the  two  great  forces  of  nature  which 
control  the  well-being  of  the  Euphrates  Valley.  In 
this  respect  they  present  a  parallel  to  the  pair,  Ninib 
and  Enlil,  with  this  difference,  however,  that  whereas  in 
the  latter  combination  Ninib,  the  sun-god,  is  the  son, 
and  Enlil,  the  storm-god,  is  the  father,  in  the  case  of 
Anu  and  Enlil  the  relationship  is  reversed,  Anu  being 
the  father  and  Enlil  the  son.  When,  therefore,  Ham- 
murapi  calls  himself  "the  proclaimer  of  Anu  and 
Enlil,"  ^  and  derives  his  royal  authority  from  these 
two,  he  is  using  a  form  of  invocation  that  is  co-exten- 
sive with  the  powers  practically  controlling  the  uni- 

^  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i.,  p.  137. 

2  King,  Inscriptions  and  Letters  of  Hammurabi,  iii.,  pp.  182, 
187,  190.  Gudea  also  sets  up  this  duality  as  embracing  the  two 
chief  Powers  of  nature  (Thureau-Dangin,  Sumerisch-Akkadische 
Kdi:igsi:!schriften,  p.  140). 


84  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

verse  as  it  presented  itself  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Euphrates  Valley.  That  Anu  should  become  the 
father  of  Enlil  accords  also  with  the  physical  condi- 
tions, for  to  an  agricultural  people,  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  the  sun  would  naturally  be  the  supreme  Power; 
and  we  have  seen  that  the  pre-eminence  accorded  in 
the  practical  c\ilt  to  Enlil  of  Nippur  was  due  to  the 
special  circumstances  attendant  upon  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  worship  of  the  Sumerian  storm-god  in 
Nippur.  _EtJil__replaces  Ninib  at  Nippur,  whereas 
the  absence  of  any  rivalry  between  the  Anu  centre 
and  the  Enlil  centre  led  to  a  more  natural  combination 
in  which  the  old  sun-god  retained  his  place  at  the 
head  of  the  systematised  pantheon. 

The  beginning  of  an  ancient  myth  ^  in  which 
Ninib  is  again  the  chief  character,  illustrates  the  re- 
lation in  which  these  three  figures — Anu,  Enlil,  and 
Ninib — were  pictured  as  standing  to  one  another. 
Ninib  is  addressed: 

Like  Anu  thou  art  formed, 
Like  Enlil  thou  art  formed! 

The  evident  purpose  of  this  apostrophe  is  to  show 
that  Ninib  has  been  given  the  qualities  of  both  Anu 
and  Enlil.  As  a  sun-god,  Ninib  could  be  addressed 
as  Anu,  while,  as  we  have  seen,  he  derives  his  quaUties 
as  a  storm-god  direct  from  Enlil. 

^  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i-,  p.  454- 


The  Pantheon  85 

The  material  at  our  disposal  does  not  permit  us  as 
3^et  to  penetrate  to  the  earliest  history  of  such  ancient 
centres  as  Nippur  and  Uruk,  but  the  indications  in 
myths  and  hymns  point  unmistakably  to  the  cur- 
rency of  stories,  attributing  to  both  Anu  and  Enlil  the 
creation  of  the  universe.  It  was  natural  that  each 
centre  should  claim  the  privilege  for  its  patron  deity; 
and  we  shall  see  that  other  centres  did  the  same.  In 
the  national  epic  of  the  Babylonians,  recounting  the 
adventures  of  Gilgamesh,  and  which  is  a  composite 
production,  dating  from  various  periods,  the  first 
scene  is  laid  in  Uruk,  and  the  goddess  Aruru  is  por- 
trayed as  forming  man  in  the  image  of  Anu. »  This 
clearly  points  to  Anu  as  the  source  of  all  being.  In 
an  ancient  version  of  a  creation  myth,  which  how- 
ever is  modified  in  the  process  of  adaptation  to  later 
conditions, "^  the  first  two  cities  to  be  founded  are 
Nippur  and  Uruk,  while  the  third  city  is  Eridu,  the 
seat  of  the  Ea  cult.  The  myth,  therefore,  reflects 
the  constitution  of  the  triad,  Anu,  EnHl,  and  Ea. 
In  another  form  of  the  myth  to  which  attention  was 
above  directed,^  Ninib  appears  as  the  hero;  but  even 
in  this  version,  which  became  the  favourite  one,  the 
story  retained  traces  of  the  assignment  of  the  part 
of  conqueror  of  primaeval  chaos  to  Anu.      The  same 

^  Tablet  I.,  col.  ii.,  33  (Jensen,  Keilinschriftliche  Bibliothek, 
vi.,  I,  p.  120). 

'  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  444  seq. 
3  See  p.  78. 


86  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

story  was  evidently  told  of  different  solar  gods  in  the 
various  centres.  In  Uruk  the  conqueror  was  the 
sun-god  Anu,  in  Nippur  the  sun-god  Ninib;  but 
with  the  definite  establishment  of  Enlil  as  the  head  of 
the  pantheon,  Ninib  becomes  merely  the  agent  acting 
at  the  command  of  Enlil,  and  invested  with  some  of 
Enlil 's  attributes  in  return  for  the  extension  of  the 
sphere  of  Enlil  to  include  the  qualities  of  his  son  Ninib. 
It  was  inevitable  that  with  several  distinctive 
factors  contributing  to  the  culture  and  religion  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria,  the  endeavour  should  be 
made  to  adapt  the  conceptions  of  the  gods  and  their 
relationships  to  one  another,  and  to  modify  the  ancient 
folk- tales  and  the  cult  to  meet  changed  conditions. 
The  evolution  of  a  religion  that  at  each  stage  reflects 
a  different  combination  of  the  political  and  social 
kaleidoscope  is  necessarily  complicated. 

Ill 

We  have  already  had  occasion'  to  touch  upon 
still  more  momentous  changes  introduced  into  all 
three  elements  of  the  religion, — the  pantheon,  the 
myths,  and  the  cult, — by  the  rise  of  the  predom- 
inating influence  of  Babylon,  which  was  coincident, 
as  we  have  seen,  with  the  period  of  Hammurapi, 
ca.  2000  B.C.  The  patron  deity  of  the  city,  whose 
foundation   takes  us   beyond  the   time  of   Sargon,^ 

*  See  above,  p.  36  seq.  '  See  above,  p.  22. 


The  Pantheon  87 

was  again  a  solar  deity,  Marduk,  who,  however,  be- 
longs to  a  different  group  than  Ann,  Enlil,  and  Ninib. 
He  is  so  constantly  termed  the  "son  of  Ea"  that  there 
can  be  no  doubt  of  his  having  originated  in  the  re- 
gion of  the  Persian  Gulf  at  the  head  of  which  lay 
Eridu,  the  seat  of  the  worship  of  Ea.  Ea  and  Marduk 
thus  bear  the  same  relation  to  each  other  as  do  Enlil 
and  Ninib  on  the  one  hand,  and  Anu  and  Enlil  on  the 
other.  Of  the  character  of  Ea  there  is  fortunately  no 
doubt.  He  is  the  god  of  the  v/aters,  and  the  position 
of  Eridu,  at  (or  near)  the  point  where  the  Euphrates 
and  Tigris  empty  into  the  Persian  Gulf,  suggests  that 
he  is  more  particularly  the  guardian  spirit  of  these 
two  streams.  Pictured  as  half-man,  half -fish,  he  is 
the  shar  Apsi,  "King  of  the  Watery  Deep.'*  The 
"Deep,"  however,  is  not  the  salt  ocean  but  the  sweet 
waters  flowing  under  the  earth,  which  feed  the  streams, 
and  through  streams  and  canals  irrigate  the  fields. 
This  Apsu  was  personified,  and  presented  a  contrast 
and  opposition  to  Tiamat,  the  personification  of  the 
salt  ocean.  The  creation  myth  of  Eridu,  therefore, 
pictures  a  conflict  at  the  beginning  of  time  between 
Apsu  and  Tiamat,  in  which  the  former,  under  the 
direction  of  Ea,  triumphs  and  holds  in  check  the 
forces  accompanying  the  monster  Tiamat.^  As  in 
the  case  of  Enlil,  Ea's  strength  rests  in  his  word,  but 

'  See  Jastrow,  "  On  the  Composite  Character  of  the  Babylonian 
Creation  Story"  {Noldeke  Festschrift,  pp.  969-982). 


88  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

the  word  of  Ea  is  of  a  character  more  spiritual  than 
that  of  Enlil — not  the  roar  of  the  ocean  but  the  gentle 
flow  of  streams.  He  commands,  and  what  he  plans 
comes  into  existence.  A  wholly  beneficent  power,  he 
blesses  the  fields  and  heals  mankind.  His  most  strik- 
ing trait  is  his  love  of  humanity;  in  conflicts  be- 
tween the  gods  and  mankind,  he  is  invariably  on 
the  side  of  the  latter.  When  the  gods  at  the  in- 
stance of  Enlil  as  the  god  of  storms  decide  to  bring 
on  a  deluge  to  sweep  away  mankind,^  it  is  Ea  who 
reveals  the  secret  to  his  favourite  Utnapishtim,  who 
saves  himself,  his  family,  and  his  belongings  on  a  ship 
that  he  is  instructed  to  build.  At  Eridu  it  is  Ea  who 
is  regarded  as  the  creator  of  the  universe,  including 
mankind,  but  he  is  an  artificer  who  produces  by  the 
cunning  of  his  hand.  The  world  is  made  by  him  as  an 
architect  builds  a  house.     This  character  he  retains 

'  In  the  present  version  of  the  nature  myth  (see  Jensen,  Keilin- 
schriftliche  Bihliothek,  vi.,  i,  p.  230  seq.),  Anu  and  Ennugi 
(=  Nusku)  are  associated  with  Enlil;  but  the  older  form  is  still  to 
be  seen  at  the  close  of  the  story,  where  it  is  Enlil  alone  who  dis- 
covers that  Utnapishtim  has  escaped,  and  Ea  is  obliged  to  con- 
ciliate the  angry  god.  Hommel's  supposition  {Expository 
Times,  1910,  p.  369)  that  in  the  new  fragment  of  this  deluge  tradi- 
tion, Enlil  (whose  name  does  not  even  appear  on  the  few  lines 
preserved)  is  the  one  who  saves  Utnapishtim,  misses  the  point  of 
the  myth,  which  rests  on  a  conflict  between  Enlil  and  Ea.  There 
is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  assume  that  this  new  fragment, 
which  adds  nothing  to  our  knowledge  of  the  subject,  represents 
a  "Nippur"  version.  It  is  not  even  certain  that  the  fragment 
was  found  at  Nippur. 


The  Pantheon  89 

throughout  all  periods.  It  is  to  him  that  the  origin  of 
the  Arts  is  attributed:  he  is  the  patron  of  smiths  and 
of  all  workers  in  metals.  Down  through  the  Greek 
period^  the  tradition  is  preserved  which  makes  him 
the  teacher  of  mankind  to  whom  all  knowledge  and 
science  are  due — the  knowledge  of  effective  incanta- 
tions, the  purification  from  disease,  the  art  of  writing, 
and  the  wisdom  of  the  heavens. 

The  waters  thus  personified  by  Ea  present  a  strik- 
ing contrast  both  to  the  angry  billows  of  the  turbulent 
and  treacherous  ocean,  and  to  the  waters  that  on  the 
command  of  Enlil  come  from  on  high,  causing  the 
rivers  to  overstep  their  banks,  bursting  the  dams  and 
canals,  flooding  the  fields,  and  working  general  havoc 
among  the  habitations  of  mankind.  The  deluge  story 
just  referred  to  not  only  illustrates  this  contrast  be- 
tween Ea  and  Enlil  but  suggests  the  rivalry  that  must 
at  one  time  have  existed  between  the  two  centres, 
Eridu  and  Nippur.  Ea  is  represented  as  thwarting 
the  purpose  of  Enlil,  and  on  discovering  what  Ea  has 
done,  Enlil  is  enraged  with  his  rival.  At  the  same 
time,  the  reconciliation  described  at  the  close  of  the 
tale  indicates  the  process  of  combination  and  as- 
similation of  the  two  cults  under  the  influence  of  the 
priests  in  their  endeavour  to  systematise  the  rela- 

^  The  Cannes  in  Berosus'  account  of  primasval  days  is 
evidently  Ea,  however  the  name  is  to  be  explained.  See  Zim- 
mem,  Keilinschrijte  und  das  AUe  Testament,  ii.,  p.  535. 


90  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

tionship  between  the  deities  worshipped  in  the  im- 
portant centres.  Ea  eloquently  implores  Enlil  as 
the  god  of  storms  not  to  bring  on  a  deluge  again.  Let 
mankind  be  punished  by  sending  lions  and  jackals, 
by  famine  or  pestilence,  but  not  by  a  deluge.  Enlil 
is  touched  with  pity,  and,  after  blessing  Utnapishtim 
and  his  wife,  consents  to  their  being  carried  to  the 
confluence  of  the  streams,  there  to  live  a  life  like  that 
of  the  gods.  Just  as  in  the  association  of  Anu  with 
Enlil  we  have  the  endeavour  to  bring  the  cults  of 
Uruk  and  Nippur  into  relationship  with  each  other, 
so  in  the  reconciliation  of  Enlil  with  Ea  there  is 
foreshadowed,  or  rather  reflected,  the  addition  of  the 
Eridu  group  of  deities  to  those  worshipped  in  Nippur 
and  Uruk.  To  the  duality  of  gods  represented  by 
Anu  and  Enlil,  the  priests  in  their  systematising 
efforts  were  thus  led  to  add  a  third  member,  Ea.  All 
three  were  delocalised,  as  it  were,  and  converted  into 
symbolisations  of  the  three  divisions  of  the  universe — 
heavens,  earth,  and  water.  ^  To  be  sure,  the  divi- 
sion was  not  always  made  with  the  desirable  pre- 
cision. The  earth  was  in  a  measure  common  ground 
on  which  Enlil  and  Ea  met.  Of  the  numerous  desig- 
nations for  Ea,  a  very  common  one  was  En-ki  which 


^  A  direct  allusion  to  this  Babylonian  system  is  to  be  seen  in 
the  Biblical  prohibition  (Ex.  xx.,  4;  Deut.  v.,  8)  against  making 
any  image  of  anything  in  the  heavens  above,  on  the  earth 
beneath,  or  in  the  waters  under  the  earth. 


The  Pantheon  91 

describes  him  as ' '  lord  of  the  earth . "  Asa  water  deity 
it  was  natural  that  he  should  be  associated  with  the 
earth,  also  the  scene  of  his  beneficent  activity.  Earth 
and  water  represent  a  close  partnership,  more  particu- 
larly in  a  low  country  like  the  Euphrates  Valley  where 
one  does  not  have  to  dig  far  before  coming  to  the 
domain  of  Ea.  Enlil  thus  controls  the  surface  of  the 
earth  and  the  region  of  storms  just  above  it,  while  to 
Ea  belongs  the  control  of  the  waters  and  the  interior 
of  the  earth,  fed  by  the  streams  over  which  he  presides. 

IV 

There  are  thus  chiefly  two  factors  at  work  in  lead- 
ing to  the  formation  of  a  definite  and  theoretically 
constructed  pantheon:  (i)  the  gradual  rise  of  a 
limited  number  of  important  religious  and  political 
centres,  and  (2)  the  endeavour  of  the  priests  to  bring 
the  cults  in  these  centres  into  relationship  with  one 
another.  The  delocalisation  involved  in  the  position 
of  Ea  as  the  third  member  of  the  triad  could  proceed 
without  any  loss  of  prestige  on  his  part,  since  Ea  was 
represented  as  voluntarily  transferring  to  his  son* 
Marduk,  his  chief  share  in  the  practical  cult — that  of 
securing  through  purification-rites  and  incantation- 
formulas  release  from  sickness  and  physical  suffering, 
brought  on  by  demons  or  through  the  machinations 
of  witches  and  sorcerers.  Marduk  is  the  complement 
to  Enlil.     Ea  and  Marduk,  personifying  the  watery 


92  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

element  and  the  sun,  thus  sum  up  the  two  chief 
Powers  of  nature,  precisely  as  Enlil  and  Ninib  repre- 
sent this  combination,  only  from  another  and  more 
austere  point  of  view. 

The  solar  character  of  Marduk  appears  in  the  two 
signs  with  which  his  name — in  its  most  common  form 
— is  written,  which  designate  him  as  "child  of  day."^ 
The  terms  in  which  he  is  addressed  in  hymns  ^  further 
illustrate  this  character.  He  is  "the  shining  one" 
whose  course  is  across  "the  resplendent  heavens." 
His  appearance  is  pictured  as  a  flaming  fire.  He 
illuminates  the  universe,  and  he  is  directly  associated 
with  Shamash,  the  chief  sun-god  of  the  later  pantheon : 

Thou  art  like  Shamash,  illuminator  of  darkness.* 

On  the  other  hand,  his  association  with  Ea  is  equally 
marked,  and  as  a  consequence  of  this  association  he 
assumes  the  attributes  of  the  god  of  waters.  In 
incantation-texts  a  dialogue  is  frequently  introduced 
in  which  Ea,  when  appealed  to  by  the  exorcising 
priests,  is  represented  as  calling  upon  his  son  to  per- 
form the  healing  acf*; 

'  The  first  element  might  more  literally  be  taken  in  the  sense 
of  "heifer,"  but  the  force  would  be  about  the  same,  since  the 
"heifer"  suggests  a  young  offspring. 

2  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i.,  pp.  495-5 19. 

ilb.,  p.  500. 

*  Jastrow,  Religion  (English  ed.),  p.  289;  German  ed.,  i.,  p.  142 
seq.;  and  Thompson,  Devils  and  Evil  Spirits,  ii.,  pp.  17,  33,  41, 
47  ^«3m  57  seq.,  67,  71,  75,  81,  93  seq.,  loi,  etc. 


PL  15.     Types  of  Gods. 

Fig.  I.  Marduk  and  Tiamat, — representing  the  conflict  of  a  storm 
god  against  a  monster  symbolical  of  primaeval  chaos.  The  god 
armed  with  the  lightning  fork  in  each  hand  is  clearly  a  storm 
god  such  as  Enlil,  the  chief  god  of  Nippur  (see  p.  68),  originally 
was.  It  was  he  to  whom,  as  the  head  of  the  older  pantheon, 
the  conquest  of  Tiamat  and  the  subsequent  creation  of  the  world 
were  ascribed.  With  the  transfer  of  the  headship  of  the  pantheon 
to  Marduk,  this  solar  deity  takes  on  the  attributes  of  Enlil.  The 
subjection  of  the  winged  monster  is  ascribed  to  Marduk,  and  is 
represented  in  a  large  variety  of  forms  on  seal  cylinders  of  the 
earlier  and  later  periods.  See  Ward  op.  cit.,  Chaps.  VIII.  and 
XXXVI.  The  horned  dragon  (see  PI.  30),  from  being  the  symbol 
of  Enlil,  by  the  same  process  of  transfer  becomes  the  animal  of 
Marduk,  and  subsequently  of  Ashur  as  the  head  of  the  Assyrian 
pantheon  (see  PI.  17,  Fig.  3).  Alabaster  slab  found  in  the  palace 
of  Ashurnasirpal  at  Nimroud  (site  of  Calah — N.  W.  Palace).  See 
Layard,  Monuments  of  Nineveh,  ii.,  PI.  5;  Mansell's  "British 
Museum  Photographs,"  Part  III.  (Assyrian  Sculptures),  No.  361. 

Fig.  2.  Marduk,  chief  god  of  Babylon  and  head  of  the  later  Baby- 
lonian pantheon.  Found  at  Babylon.  Lapis-lazuli  cylinder,  with 
dedicatory  inscription  to  Marduk  by  Alarduk-nadinshum,  king 
of  Babylonia  (c.  850  b.c),  and  deposited  in  the  temple  E-Sagila 
at  Babylon.  See  Mitteilungen  der  Deutschen  Orient-Gesellschaft, 
No.  5,  pp.  14-15. 

Fig.  3.  The  storm-god  Adad  (or  Ramman).  Found  at  Babylon. 
Lapis-lazuli  cylinder,  with  dedicatory  inscription  to  Marduk  by 
Esarhaddon,  King  of  Assyria  (680-669  B.C.),  but  nevertheless 
expressly  designated  as  "the  seal  of  Adad  of  the  temple  E-Sagila," 
forming  part  of  the  treasury  of  Marduk.  See  Mitteilungen  der 
Deutschen  Orient-Gesellschaft,  No.  5,  pp.  13-14. 


Fig. 


I,     Conflict  of  Marduk  with  the  Monster  Tiamat 


Fig.  2.    Marduk,the 

Chief  God  of 

Babylon 


Fig.  3.  Adad 
(or  Ramman) 
the  God  of 
Storms, Thun- 
der, and 
Lightning 


The  Pantheon  93 

What  dost  thou  not  know  that  I  could  tell  thee? 

What  I  know,  thou  also  knowest. 

Go!    My  son  Marduk!    To  the  house  of  purification  bring  him 

[i.e.,  the  sick  person] ! 
Break  the  ban!    Release  him  from  the  curse! 

Marduk,  like  Ea,  is  often  addressed  as  the  god  of 
canals,  and  the  opener  of  subterranean  fountains': 

Lord  of  mountain  streams  and  of  waters, 

Opener  of  sources  and  cisterns,  controller  of  streams. 

Like  Ea,  again,  he  is  addressed  as  the  source  of  the 
wisdom  of  mankind : 

Wise  one,  first-born  of  Ea,  creator  of  all  humanity. 

In  representations  of  the  god  he  stands  above  the 
watery  deep,  with  a  horned  creature  at  his  feet  that 
is  also  the  symbol  of  Ea.^  Lastly,  Marduk's  temple 
at  Babylon  bears  the  same  name,  Esagila,  "the  lofty 
house,"  as  Ea's  sanctuary  at  Eridu,  though  this,  or 
perhaps  another  sanctuary  of  Ea  at  Eridu,  was  also 
known  as  E-Apsu,  "house  of  the  watery  deep." 

This  agreement  in  the  name  of  the  sanctuaries  of 
the  two  gods  confirms  the  evidence  from  other  sources, 
which  enables  us  actually  to  trace  the  cult  of  Marduk 
back  to  Eridu.  If  we  find,  therefore,  the  Marduk 
cult,  from  a  certain  period  on,  centred  in  a  northern 
city  like  Babylon,  we  have  every  reason  to  believe 
that  the  settlement  of  this  place  was  due  to  a  move- 

» Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i.,  p.  498  seq. 
»  See  Plate  15,  Fig.  3. 


94  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

ment  from  the  south — and  more  particularly  from 
the  district  of  which  Eridu  was  the  centre — in  accord, 
therefore,  with  the  general  course  of  civilisation  in 
Babylonia  from  south  to  north.  Babylon  thus  turns 
out  to  be  an  offshoot  of  Eridu.  Its  foundation 
antedates  Sargon,  for  he  finds  the  city  already  in 
existence  and  enlarges  it ;  but  it  is  possible  that  it  was 
he  who  gave  to  it  the  name  of  Babylon. 

Opposite  Babylon  lies  the  famous  town  of  Borsippa, 
designated  in  the  inscriptions  as  "  the  city  of  the 
Euphrates,"  which,  as  may  be  concluded  from  the 
name  and  from  other  indications,  appears  to  be  an 
older  settlement  than  Babylon  itself,  and  to  have 
assumed  earlier  a  position  of  importance  as  an  in- 
tellectual and  religious  centre.  When,  however, 
Hammurapi  raised  Babylon  to  be  the  capital  of  his 
empire,  Borsippa  was  obliged  to  yield  its  prerogatives, 
and  gradually  sank  to  the  rank  of  a  mere  dependency 
upon  Babylon — a  kind  of  suburb  to  the  capital  city. 
The  patron  deity  of  Borsippa  was  a  god  known  as 
Nebo,  whose  cult  appears  at  one  time  to  have  been 
carried  over  into  Babylon — perhaps  before  Marduk 
became  the  patron  deity  of  the  place.  Marduk,  how- 
ever, replaces  Nebo  as  Enlil  replaced  Ninib;  but,  just 
as  at  Nippur  the  older  sun  cult  does  not  disappear, 
and  Ninib  becomes  the  son  of  Enlil,  so  the  Nebo 
cult  at  Babylon  is  maintained,  and  Nebo  is  viewed  as 
the  son  of  Marduk.     In  both  places,  therefore,  the 


The  Pantheon  95 

*' father"  god  appears  to  be  the  intruder  who  sets 
aside  an  older  chief  deity.  The  combination  of 
Marduk  and  Nebo,  expressed  in  these  terms  of  re- 
lationship, continues  to  the  end  of  the  Babylonian 
empire.  Nebo  has  a  sanctuary  within  the  temple 
area  of  Esagila  at  Babylon  which  bears  the  same  name, 
Ezida,  "the  true  house,"  as  the  one  given  to  Nebo's 
temple  at  Borsippa.  In  return,  Marduk  has  an 
Esagila,  a  ''lofty  house,"  in  Borsippa.  In  the  As- 
syrian and  later  Babylonian  periods  the  two  names, 
Esagila  and  Ezida,  are  generall}^  found  in  combina- 
tion, as  though  inseparable  in  the  minds  of  the  Baby- 
lonians. Similarly,  the  two  gods,  Marduk  and  Nebo, 
are  quite  commonly  invoked  together,  e.g.,  in  the 
formula  of  greeting  at  the  beginning  of  official  letters, 
which,  even  in  the  case  of  the  correspondence  of  the 
Assyrian  monarchs,  begin: 

May  Nebo  and  Mardiik  bless  the  king  my  lord!  ^ 

V 

Who  was  this  god  Nebo?  The  question  is  not  easy 
to  answer,  though  the  most  satisfactory  view  is  to 
regard  him  as  a  counterpart  of  Ea.  Like  Ea,  he 
is  the  embodiment  and  source  of  wisdom.  The  art  of 
writing — and  therefore  of  all  literature — ^is  more 
particularly  associated  with  him.  A  common  form 
of  his  name  designates  him  as  the  "god  of  the  stylus," 

^  So  passim  in  Harpers,  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Letters, 


96  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

and  his  symbol  on  Boundary  Stones  is  likewise  the 
stylus  of  the  scribes.  He  was  regarded  by  the  As- 
syrians also  as  the  god  of  writing  and  wisdom, 
and  Ashurbanapal,  in  the  colophons  to  the  tablets 
of  his  library,  names  Nebo  and  his  consort  Tashmit 
as  the  pair  who  instructed  the  king  to  preserve 
and  collect  the  literary  remains  of  the  past.^  The 
study  of  the  heavens  formed  part  of  the  wisdom 
which  is  traced  back  to  Nebo ;  and  the  temple  school 
at  Borsippa  became  one  of  the  chief  centres  for 
the  astrological  and,  subsequently,  for  the  astrono- 
mical lore  of  Babylonia.  The  archives  of  that 
school  in  fact  formed  one  of  the  chief  resources 
for  the  scribes  of  Ashurbanapal,  though  the  ar- 
chives at  Babylon  were  also  largely  drawn  upon. 
In  the  Persian  and  Greek  periods  the  school  of 
Borsippa  is  frequently  mentioned  in  colophons 
attached  to  school  texts  of  various  kinds,  and  it 
is  not  improbable  that  the  school  survived  the  one 
at  Babylon. 

Like  Ea,  Nebo  is  also  associated  with  the  irrigation 
of  the  fields  and  with  their  consequent  fertility.  A 
hymn  praises  him  as  the  one  who  fills  the  canals  and 
the  dikes,  who  protects  the  fields  and  brings  the  crops 
to  maturity.  From  such  phrases  the  conclusion  has 
been  drawn  by  some  scholars  that  Nebo  was  originally 

*  In  the  "omen"  section  of  the  library,  Shannash  and  Adad 
as  "  the  gods  of  divination,"  take  the  place  of  Nebo  and  Tashmit. 


The  Pantheon  97 

a  solar  deity,  like  Marduk,  but  his  traits  as  a  god  of 
vegetation  can  be  accounted  for  on  the  supposition 
that  he  was  a  water-deity,  like  Ea,  whose  favour  was 
essential  to  rich  harvests.  We  may,  however,  also 
assume  that  the  close  partnership  between  him  and 
Marduk  had  as  a  consequence  a  transfer  of  some  of  the 
father  Marduk's  attributes  as  a  solar  deity  to  Nebo, 
his  son,  just  as  Ea  passed  his  traits  on  to  his  son,  Mar- 
duk. Although  he  is  called  upon  to  heal,  Nebo  plays 
no  part  in  the  incantation-ritual,  which  revolves,  as 
we  shall  see,^  around  two  ideas — water,  represented 
by  Ea,  and  fire,  represented  by  the  fire-god  Gibil  or 
Nusku.  The  predominance  of  the  Ea  ritual  in  in- 
cantations left  no  room  for  a  second  water-deity — 
there  was  place  only  for  Marduk  as  an  intermediary 
between  Ea  and  suffering  mankind.  We  may,  there- 
fore, rest  content  with  the  conclusion  that  Nebo,  like 
Marduk,  belongs  to  the  Eridu  group  of  deities,  that,  as 
a  counterpart  to  Ea,  his  duty  was  always  of  a  second- 
ary character,  and  that,  with  the  growing  importance 
of  the  Marduk  cult,  he  becomes  an  adjunct  to  Mar- 
duk. This  relationship  is  expressed  by  making  Nebo 
the  son  of  Marduk.  The  two  pass  down  through  the 
ages  as  an  inseparable  pair — representing  a  dual- 
ity, and  forming  a  parallel  to  that  constituted  by  Ea 
and  Marduk.  Marduk  and  Nebo  sum  up,  again,  the 
two  chief  Powers  of  natiire  conditioning  the  welfare 
^  See  p.  312. 
7 


98  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  the  country — the  sun  and  the  watery  element — 
precisely  as  do  Ea  and  Marduk;  with  these  latter, 
however,  for  reasons  that  have  been  given,  the  order 
is  reversed,  just  as  we  have  the  double  order,  Anu  and 
Enlil — sun  and  storm — by  the  side  of  Enlil  and 
Ninib — storm  and  sun.  The  name  Nebo  designates 
the  god  as  a  "proclaimer,"  while  another  sign  with 
which  his  name  is  commonly  written  describes  him 
as  an  artificer  or  creator.  No  doubt  in  his  seat  of 
worship,  Borsippa,  Nebo  was  at  one  time  looked  upon 
as  the  creator  of  the  universe,  just  as  Ea,  Enlil,  Ninib, 
and  Marduk  were  so  regarded  in  their  respective 
centres.  He  is  portrayed  as  holding  the  "tablets  of 
fate"  on  which  the  destinies  of  individuals  are  in- 
scribed. As  "writer"  or  "scribe"  among  the  gods, 
he  records  their  decisions,  as  proclaimer  or  herald, 
he  announces  these  decisions.  Such  functions  point 
to  his  having  occupied  from  an  early  period  the  posi- 
tion of  an  intermediary,  and  we  are  probably  not 
wrong  in  supposing  that  the  god  whose  orders  he 
carries  out  was  originally  Ea,  who  was  later 
replaced  in  this  capacity  by  Marduk.  Nebo  could, 
however,  retain  his  attributes  as  the  god  of  writing 
without  injury  to  the  dignity  and  superiority  of 
Marduk,  for  in  the  ancient  Orient,  as  in  the  Orient  of 
to-day,  the  kdtih  or  scribe  is  not  a  person  of  superior 
rank.  Authorship  was  at  no  time  in  the  ancient 
Orient  a  basis  for  social  or  political  prestige.     A  writer 


The  Pantheon  99 

was  essentially  a  secretary  who  acted  as  an  inter- 
mediary.^ 

The  rank  that  Nebo  holds  in  the  systematised 
pantheon  is  due,  therefore,  almost  entirely  to  his 
partnership  with  Marduk,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note 
that  the  Assyrian  kings  avail  themselves  of  this  as- 
sociation occasionally  to  play  off  Nebo,  as  it  were, 
against  Marduk.  Some  of  them  appear  to  pay 
their  homage  to  Nebo  rather  than  to  Marduk,  be- 
cause the  latter  was  in  a  measure  a  rival  to  the  head 
of  the  Assyrian  pantheon.  Adad-nirari  IV.  (810-782 
B.C.)  goes  so  far  in  his  adoration  of  Nebo  as  to  inscribe 
on  a  statue  of  this  god  (or  is  it  his  own  statue?) : 

Trust  in  Nebo!     Trust  in  no  other  god!  * 

The  Nebo  cult,  which,  like  that  of  other  gods,  had  its 
ebb  and  flow,  must  have  enjoyed  a  special  popularity 
in  Assyria  in  the  9th  century. 

No  such  rivalry  between  the  Marduk  and  Nebo 
cults  appears  ever  to  have  existed  in  Babylonia, 
though  it  is  perhaps  not  without  significance  that  in 
the  days  of  the  neo- Babylonian  empire  no  less  than 
three   of    the  rulers^   bear    names  in  which    Nebo 

'  It  is  significant  that  there  is  no  word  for  "author"  in  Biblical 
Hebrew  (or  in  Babylonian),  but  merely  one  for  "scribe,"  the 
term  being  indifferently  used  for  one  who  composes  something, 
or  for  one  who  merely  copies  what  others  have  written. 

*  Schrader,  Keilinschriftliche  Bibliothek,  i.,  p.  193. 

3  Nabopolassar,  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  Nabonnedos. 


100  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

enters  as  one  of  the  elements.  The  position  of  Mar- 
duk  was,  however,  at  all  times  too  strong  to  be  seri- 
ously affected  by  fashions  in  names  or  changes  in  the 
cult.  He  not  only  remains  during  all  periods  after 
Hammurapi  the  head  of  the  pantheon,  but  as  the 
ages  rolled  on  he  absorbed,  as  has  already  been 
pointed  out,  the  attributes  of  all  the  great  gods  of  the 
pantheon.  He  becomes  the  favourite  of  the  gods  as 
well  as  of  men.  Starting  out  at  Babylon  with  the 
absorption  of  the  character  of  Ea,  combining  in  his 
person  the  two  Powers,  water  and  the  sun,  which 
comprise  so  large  a  share  of  divine  government  and 
control  of  the  universe,  he  ends  by  taking  over  also 
the  duties  of  Enlil  of  Nippur.  This  is  of  the  greatest 
significance.  It  argues  for  the  boldness  of  the  Mar- 
duk  priests  and  for  the  security  of  IMarduk's  position 
that  they  gave  to  Marduk  the  title  that  was  so  long 
the  prerogative  of  Enlil,  to  wit,  bel,  "the  lord"  para- 
mount. The  old  nature-mj^ths  are  once  more  adopted 
by  the  priests  of  Alarduk  and  transformed  so  as  to 
give  to  Marduk  the  central  position.  It  is  he  who 
seizes  the  tablets  of  fate  from  the  Zu  bird — the 
personification  of  some  solar  deity, — and  henceforth 
holds  the  destiny  of  mankind  in  his  hands.  The 
creation-myth  is  transformed  into  a  pseon  celebrat- 
ing the  deeds  of  Marduk.  What  in  one  version  was 
ascribed  to  Anu,  in  another  to  Ninib,  in  a  third  to 
Enlil,  and  in  a  fourth  to  Ea,  is  in  the  Babylon  version 


The  Pantheon  loi 

ascribed  to  Marduk.  Two  series  of  creation-stories 
are  combined;  one  embodying  an  account  of  a  con- 
flict with  a  monster,  the  symbol  of  primaeval  chaos, 
the  other  a  story  of  rebellion  against  Ea  which  is 
successfully  quelled.  In  the  first  group  we  can  dis- 
tinguish three  versions,  one  originating  at  Uruk  in 
which  the  solar  god  Anu  becomes  the  conqueror  of 
Tiamat,  the  other  two  originating  at  Nippur,  an 
earlier  one  in  which  the  solar  god  Ninib  takes  the 
part  assigned,  in  the  Uruk  version,  to  Anu,  and  a  later 
one  in  which  Enlil  replaces  Ninib.  The  character  of 
the  myth  is  thereby  changed.  Instead  of  symbolis- 
ing the  triumph  of  the  sun  of  the  springtime  over  the 
storms  of  winter,  it  becomes  an  illustration  of  the 
subjugation  of  chaos  by  the  rise  of  law  and  order  in 
the  universe.  In  the  Babylon  or  Marduk  version, 
Anu  is  at  first  dispatched  by  the  gods  against  the 
monster  but  is  frightened  at  the  sight  of  her.  All  the 
other  gods,  too,  are  in  mortal  terror  of  Tiamat  but 
Marduk  offers  to  proceed  against  her  on  condi- 
tion that  in  case  of  his  triumph  the  entire  assemblage 
of  the  gods  shall  pay  him  homage  and  acknowledge  his 
sway.  The  compact  is  accepted,  and  Marduk  arms 
himself  for  the  fray.  The  weapons  that  he  takes — 
the  four  winds  and  the  various  storms,  the  tempest, 
the  hurricane,  and  tornado — symbolise  his  absorp- 
tion of  the  part  of  Enlil,  the  god  of  storms.  Marduk 
meets  Tiamat,  and  dispatches  her  by  inflating  her 


102  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

with  an  evil  wind,  and  then  bursting  her  open  with 
his  lance.  The  gods  rejoice  and  give  him  their 
names,  a  procedure  which,  according  to  the  views  of 
antiquity,  is  equivalent  to  bestowing  upon  him  their 
essence  and  their  attributes.  After  all  the  gods  have 
thus  done,  Enlil  advances  and  hails  Marduk  as  bH 
mdtdti,  "lord  of  lands,"  which  was  one  of  Enlil's 
special  names,  and  finally  Ea  solemnly  declares  that 
Marduk's  name  shall  also  be  Ea': 

He  who  has  been  glorified  by  his  fathers, 
He  shall  be  as  I  am — Ea  be  his  name! 

The  purpose  of  the  story  is  evident.  All  the  reli- 
gious centres  pay  homage  to  Babylon — the  seat  of 
the  Marduk  cult;  Marduk:  absorbs  the  attributes 
and  powers  of  all  the  other  gods. 

In  the  schools  this  prominence  of  Marduk  as  a  re- 
flection of  the  political  supremacy  of  Babylon  is  still 
further  developed,  and  finds  a  striking  expression  in 
a  fragment  of  composition  preserved  for  us  by  a  for- 
tunate chance^: 

Ea  (?)  is  the  Marduk  of  canals; 
Ninib  is  the  Marduk  of  strength; 
Nergal  is  the  Marduk  of  war; 

^  King,  Seven  Tablets  of  Creation,  Tablet  VH.,  119,  120. 

*  Cun.  Texts,  etc.,  Part  xxiv.,  Plate  50  (No.  47,406,  obverse). 
The  reverse,  badly  preserved,  gives  a  list  of  images  of  gods.  The 
tablet  is  a  neo-Baby Ionian  copy  of  an  older  "  Babylonian  "  text. 
See  King's  discussion  of  the  tablet,  ib.,  p.  9  and  Pinches  in 
the  Expository  Times  for  February,  191 1. 


The  Pantheon  103 

Zamama  is  the  Marduk  of  battle; 

Enlil  is  the  Marduk  of  sovereignty  and  control; 

Nebo  is  the  Marduk  of  possession; 

Sin  is  the  Marduk  of  illumination  of  the  night; 

Shamash  is  the  Marduk  of  judgments; 

Adad  is  the  Marduk  of  rain; 

Tishpak^  is  the  Marduk  of  the  host; 

Gal '  is  the  Marduk  of  strength ; 

Shukamunu^  is  the  Marduk  of  the  harvest. 

From  this  text,  scholars  have  drawn  the  conclusion 
that  the  Babylonian  religion  resulted  in  a  mono- 
theistic conception  of  the  universe.  Is  this  justified? 
In  so  far  as  Marduk  absorbs  the  characters  of  all  the 
other  gods,  there  is  no  escape  from  this  much  of  the 
conclusion: — there  was  a  tendency  towards  mono- 
theism in  the  Euphrates  Valley,  as  there  was  at  one 
time  in  Egypt.  "•  On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  similar  lists  were  drawn  up  by 
priests.  They  reveal  the  speculations  of  the  temple- 
schools  rather  than  popular  beliefs,  but  even  when 
thus  viewed,  their  aim  was  probably  to  go  no  farther 
than  to  illustrate  in  a  striking  manner  the  universal- 
ity of  the  god's  nature  so  as  to  justify  his  position  at 
the  head  of  the  pantheon.     This  position  was  em- 

^  A  foreign  deity — perhaps  a  designation  of  the  chief  Elamite 
deity. 

2  I.e.,  "great  god" — also  intended  as  a  designation  of  a  foreign 
god. 

3  A  Cassite  deity. 

4  See  Steindorff,   Religion  oj  the  Ancient   Egyptians,   p.    58 
seg. 


I04  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

phasised  in  an  equally  striking  manner  by  the  cere- 
monies of  New  Year's  day,  when  a  formal  assembly 
of  the  gods  was  held  in  a  special  shrine  in  Babylon, 
close  by  the  temple  area,  with  all  the  chief  gods 
grouped  about  Marduk,  (just  as  the  princes,  govern- 
ors, and  generals  stand  about  the  king),  paying 
homage  to  him  as  their  chief,  and  deciding  in 
solemn  state  the  fate  of  the  country  and  of  in- 
dividuals for  the  coming  year.  The  Babylonian 
priest  could  re-echo  the  ecstatic  cry  of  the  Psalmist 
(Ps.  kxxvi.,  8): 

There  is  none  like  thee  among  the  gods,  O  Lord, 
And  there  is  nothing  like  thy  works; 

with  this  important  difference,  however,  that,  in  the 
mind  of  the  Hebrew  poet,  Jahweh  was  the  only 
power  that  had  a  real  existence,  whereas  to  the 
Babylonian  priest  Marduk  was  merely  the  first  and 
highest  in  the  divine  realm.  Still,  that  the  other 
gods  are  merely  manifestations  of  Marduk  (a  fair 
implication  of  the  list)  is  a  thought  which  not  im- 
probably presented  itself  to  some  of  the  choicer  minds 
among  the  priests,  though  it  remained  without  prac- 
tical consequences.  A  certain  tendency  toward  a 
monotheistic  conception  of  the  universe  is  after  all  no 
unusual  phenomenon,  nor  is  monotheism  in  itself 
necessarily,  the  outcome  of  a  deep  religious  spirit — 
it   may   sometimes  be   the   product  of  rationalistic 


The  Pantheon  105 

speculation.  In  many  a  Babylonian  composition  the 
term  ilu,  "god,"  is  used  in  a  manner  to  convey  the 
impression  that  there  was  only  one  god  to  be  appealed 
to.  Greek  and  Roman  writers  often  speak  of  Oeoc; 
and  deus  in  much  the  same  way  as  we  ourselves  do; 
and  even  among  people  on  a  low  level  of  culture  we 
are  constantly  surprised  by  indications  that,  albeit 
in  a  faint  and  imperfect  manner,  the  thought  occurs 
that  all  nature  is  the  manifestation  of  a  single  Power, 
though  generally  not  a  Power  to  be  directly  ap- 
proached. The  distinctive  feature  of  Hebrew  mono- 
theism is  its  consistent  adherence  to  the  principle  of  a 
transcendent  deity,  and  of  the  reorganisation  of  the 
cult  in  obedience  to  this  principle.  No  attempt  was 
made  at  any  time  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria  to  set 
aside  the  cult  of  other  gods  in  favour  of  Marduk. 
On  the  contrary,  side  by  side  with  the  Marduk 
cult  in  Babylonia  and  with  the  cult  of  Ashur  in 
Assyria,  we  find  down  to  the  latest  period  all — 
Sin,  Shamash,  Nebo,  Ninib,  Nergal,  Adad,  Ishtar 
— receiving  in  their  special  shrines  the  homage 
which  tradition  and  long  established  ritual  had 
prescribed. 

VI 

After  having  thus  sketched  in  some  detail  the  char- 
acter and  development  of  Anu,  Enlil,  Ea,  Ninib,  Nebo, 
and  Marduk,  we  can  be  briefer  in  our  consideration 


io6  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of   the  remaining  chief   figures  in   the   Babylonian- 
Assyrian  pantheon. 

The  importance  of  solar  cults  in  an  agricultural 
community  explains  the  circumstance  that  we  en- 
counter so  many  centres  in  which  the  chief  deity  is  a 
sun-god.  It  has  been  already  pointed  out  that  the 
god  who  was  probably  the  original  patron  deity  of 
Nippur — Ninib — was  a  solar  deity,  that  Anu  of 
Uruk  was  such  a  deity  and  Marduk  likewise,  and  that 
Ninib,  becoming  in  consequence  of  the  pre-eminent 
religious  position  of  Nippur  the  chiefest  sun-god, 
absorbs  other  sun-gods  such  as  Ningirsu  of  Lagash 
and  Zamama  of  Kish.  In  addition,  there  are  three 
other  important  centres  in  ancient  Babylonia  in 
which  the  patron  deity  represents  some  phase  of  the 
sun — Cuthah,  Larsa,  and  Sippar.  In  Cuthah  he  was 
known  as  Nergal,  in  Larsa  and  Sippar  as  Ut,  "day," 
or  Babbar  "shining  one,"  for  which  the  Semitic 
form  is  Shamash.  Cuthah  appears  to  have  been  a 
very  early  Sumerian  settlement,  though  it  never  rose 
to  any  striking  political  importance,  and  the  same  is 
the  case  with  Larsa,  while  Sippar,  not  far  from  Baby- 
lon, seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  earliest  strong- 
holds of  the  Semites.  Too  much  stress  must  not  be 
laid,  however,  on  such  distinctions,  for,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  mixture  of  Sumerians  and  Semites  was  so 
pronounced,  even  in  the  oldest  period  revealed  by 
the  documents  at  our  command,  that  a  differentiation 


The  Pantheon  107 

between  Semitic  and  non- Semitic  elements  in  the 
conceptions  formed  of  the  gods  is  not  generally  pos- 
sible. Climatic  and  sociological  conditions  are  more 
effective  factors  in  such  conceptions  than  racial 
traits.  More  important  for  our  purposes  is  it  to 
recognise  that  there  are  two  phases  presented  by  the 
sun  in  a  climate  like  that  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 
On  the  one  hand,  he  is  the  great  beneficent  power  who 
triumphs  over  the  storms  and  rains  of  winter,  who  re- 
pairs the  havoc  wrought  by  the  flooding  of  the  land 
and  by  the  destruction  through  violent  winds,  and 
clothes  nature  in  a  garment  of  verdant  glory.  But  he 
is  also  a  destructive  force.  The  fierce  heat  of  the 
summer  evokes  distress  and  sickness.  The  sun  may 
become  a  fire  that  burns  up  the  crops.  For  reasons 
that  are  not  as  clear  as  one  might  wish,  Nergal  be- 
comes, in  Babylonian  theology,  the  type  of  the  sun's 
destructive  power.  He  is  associated  with  pestilence, 
famine,  and  the  grave;  and  we  shall  see,  in  a  subse- 
quent lecture,  that,  as  a  gloomy  and  morose  god,  he  is 
assigned  to  a  position  at  the  head  of  a  special  pantheon 
of  the  lower  world  where  the  dead  dwell.  His  city, 
Cuthah,  becomes  a  poetical  designation  for  the  great 
gathering-place  of  the  dead,  and  his  name  is  explained, 
perhaps  fancifully,  as  "the  lord  of  the  great  dwell- 
ing," that  is,  the  grave.  It  is  quite  within  the  range 
of  possibility  that  Cuthah  may  have  been  a  place 
that  acquired  special  sanctity  as  a  burial-place,  as 


io8  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Kerbela,  in  the  same  region,  is  still  regarded  as  such 
by  the  Shiite  sect  of  Islam. »  The  animal  associated 
with  Nergal,  as  a  symbol,  is  a  fierce  lion,  and  he  is 
pictured  as  greedy  for  himian  victims.  The  various 
names  assigned  to  him,  almost  without  exception,  em- 
phasise this  forbidding  phase  of  his  nature,  and  the 
myths  associated  with  him  deal  with  destruction, 
pestilence,  and  death.  Naturally,  Nergal  is  also  pic- 
tured as  a  god  of  war,  bringing  about  just  the  re- 
sults for  which  he  would  be  held  responsible.  In 
Baby  Ionian- Assyrian  astrology,  he  is  identified  with 
the  planet  Mars,  and  the  omen-literature  shows  that 
Mars  in  ancient  days,  as  still  at  the  present  time,  was 
regarded  as  the  planet  unlucky  above  all  others. 

Whatever  the  reasons  that  led  to  this  concentra- 
tion of  all  the  unfavourable  phases  of  the  sun-god  on 
Nergal,  the  prominence  that  the  cult  of  Babbar  (or 
Shamash)  at  Sippar  acquired  was  certainly  one  of 
the  factors  involved.  This  cult  cannot  be  separated 
from  that  at  Larsa.  The  designation  of  the  god  at 
both  places  is  the  same,  and  the  name  of  the  chief 
sanctuary  of  the  sun-god  at  both  Larsa  and  Sippar  is 
E-Babbar  (or  E-Barra),  "the  shining  house."  The 
cult  of  Babbar  was  transferred  from  the  one  place  to 
the  other,  precisely  as  Marduk's  worship  was  carried 

^  See  Peters,  Nippur,  i.,  p.  322  seq.  The  tradition  which 
places  here  the  death  of  the  sons  of  Ali  is  merely  due  to  a  desire 
to  invest  an  ancient  centre  of  burial  with  a  significance  for 
Islamism. 


PL  1 6.     Fig.  I.     The  Sun-god  Shamash  in  his  Shrine. 

Stone  tablet  of  NebopaUddin,  King  of  Babylonia  {c.  880  B.C.), 
representing  Shamash,  the  sun-god  of  Sippar,  seated  in  his  shrine 
with  the  king  (second  figure)  led  into  the  god's  presence  by  a  priest, 
and  followed  by  A,  the  consort  of  Shamash — the  goddess  inter- 
ceding, as  it  were,  on  behalf  of  the  king.  Found  by  Rassam  at 
Sippar.  See'Rassam,  Asshur  and  the  Land  of  Nimrod,  p.  402. 
Fig.  2.     Clay  Model  representing  the  Cult  of  the  Sun-god. 

In  all  probabiHties  it  illustrates  a  ceremony  of  sun  worship — 
perhaps  the  greeting  of  the  sun-god  at  sunrise.  Found  at  Susa 
and  now  in  the  Louvre.  See  J.  E.  Gautier,  Recueil  de  Travaux, 
vol.  xxxi.,  pp.  41-49. 


ii' 


m 


Fig.  I.     The  Sun-god  Shamash 
sitting  in  his  Shrine 


Fig.  2.     Cult  of  the  Sun-god  (Susa) 


The  Pantheon  109 

from  Eridu  to  Babylon.  While  Larsa  appears  to  be 
the  older  of  the  two  centres,  Sippar,  from  the  days  of 
Sargon  onward,  begins  to  distance  its  rival,  and,  in 
the  days  of  Hammurapi,  it  assumes  the  character  of  a 
second  capital,  ranking  immediately  after  Babylon, 
and  often  in  close  association  with  that  city.  Even 
the  cult  of  Marduk  could  not  dim  the  lustre  of  Sha- 
mash  at  Sippar.  During  the  closing  days  of  the  neo- 
Babylonian  empire,  the  impression  is  imparted  that 
there  was,  in  fact,  some  rivalry  between  the  priests 
of  Sippar  and  those  of  Babylon.  Nabonnedos,  the 
last  king  of  Babylonia,  ^  is  described  as  having  of- 
fended Marduk  by  casting  his  lot  in  with  the  adher- 
ents of  Shamash,  so  that  when  Cyrus  enters  the  city 
he  is  hailed  as  the  saviour  of  Marduk's  prestige  and 
received  with  open  arms  by  the  priests  of  Babylon. 
The  original  solar  character  of  Marduk,  we  have  seen, 
was  obscured  by  his  assuming  the  attributes  of  other 
deities  that  were  practically  absorbed  by  him,  but 
in  the  case  of  Shamash  at  Sippar  no  such  transforma- 
tion of  his  character  took  place.  ^  He  remains  through- 
out all  periods  the  personification  of  the  beneficent 
power  residing  in  the  sun.  The  only  change  to  be 
noted  as  a  consequence  of  the  pre-eminence  of  the  cult 
at  Sippar  is  that  the  sun-god  of  this  place,  absorbing 

^  See  above,  p.  59  and  Rogers,  History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria, 
ii.,  p.  362  seq. 

'  See  Plate  16,  Fig.  i.     Shamash  in  his  shrine  at  Sippar. 


no  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

in  a  measure  many  of  the  minor  localised  sun-cults, 
becomes  the  paramount  sun-god,  taking  the  place  oc- 
cupied in  the  older  Babylonian  pantheon  by  Ninib  of 
Nippur.  The  Semitic  name  of  the  god — Shamash — 
becomes  the  specific  term  for  the  sun,  not  only  in 
Babylonia  but  throughout  the  domain  of  the  Semites 
and  of  Semitic  influence. 

A  place  had,  however,  to  be  found  for  sun-cults  at 
centres  so  important  that  they  could  not  be  absorbed 
even  by  Shamash  of  Sippar.  Nippur  retained  its  re- 
ligious prestige  throughout  all  vicissitudes,  and  its 
solar  patron  was  regarded  in  the  theological  system  as 
typifying  more  particularly  the  sun  of  the  springtime ; 
w^hile  at  Cuthah  Nergal  was  pictured  as  the  sun  of  mid- 
summer with  all  the  associations  connected  with  that 
trying  season.  The  differentiation  had  to  a  large  ex- 
tent a  purely  theoretical  import.  The  practical  cult 
was  not  affected  by  such  speculations  and  no  doubt, 
at  Cuthah  itself,  Nergal  was  also  worshipped  as  a 
beneficent  power.  On  the  other  hand,  Ninib,  as  a  sur- 
vival of  the  period  when  he  was  the  "Shamash "  of  the 
entire  Euphrates  Valley,  is  also  regarded,  like  Nergal, 
as  a  god  of  war  and  of  destruction  along  with  his 
beneficent  manifestations.  In  ancient  myths  dealing 
with  his  exploits  his  common  title  is  "warrior,"^  and 

^  Hrozny,  Sumerisch-Bahylonische  Mythen  von  dem  Gotte  Nin- 
rag  (Ninib).  See  also  Radau,  Ninib,  the  Determiner  of  Fates 
(Phila.,  1910),  whose  view  of  Ninib,  however  (p.  23),  is  entirely 
erroneous. 


The  Pantheon  iii 

the  planet  Saturn,  with  which  he  is  identified  in 
astrology,  shares  many  of  the  traits  of  Mars-Nergal. 
Shamash  of  Sippar  also  illustrates  these  two  phases. 
Like  Ninib,  he  is  a  "warrior,"  and  often  shows 
himself  enraged  against  his  subjects. 

The  most;  significant  feature,  however,  of  the  sun- 
cult  in  Babylonia,  which  applies  more  particularly  to 
Shamash  of  Sippar,  is  the  association  of  justice  and 
righteousness  with  the  god.  Shamash,  as  the  judge  of 
mankind,  is  he  who  brings  hidden  crimes  to  light, 
punishing  the  wrongdoers  and  righting  those  who 
have  been  unjustly  condemned.  It  is  he  who  pro- 
nounces the  judgments  in  the  courts  of  justice.  The 
priests  in  their  capacity  of  judges  speak  in  his  name. 
Laws  are  promulgated  as  the  decrees  of  Shamash; 
it  is  significant  that  even  so  ardent  a  worshipper  of 
Marduk  as  Hammurapi  places  the  figure  of  Shamash 
at  the  head  of  the  monument  on  which  he  inscribes 
the  regulations  of  the  famous  code  compiled  by  him, 
thereby  designating  Shamash  as  the  source  and  in- 
spiration of  law  and  justice.  The  hymns  to  Shamash, 
almost  without  exception,  voice  this  ascription.  He 
is  thus  addressed^: 

The  progeny  of  those  who  deal  unjustly  will  not  prosper. 
What  their  mouth  utters  in  thy  presence 

Thou  wilt  destroy,   what  issues  from  their  mouth  thou  wilt 
dissipate. 

*  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i.,  p.  435. 


112  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Thou  knowest  their  transgressions,  the  plan  of  the  wicked  thou 

rejectest. 
All,  whoever  they  be,  are  in  thy  care; 

Thou  directest  their  suit,  those  imprisoned  thou  dost  release; 
Thou  hearest,  O  Shamash,  petition,  prayer,  and  imploration. 

Another  passage  of  the  hymn  declares  that 

He  who  takes  no  bribe,  who  cares  for  the  oppressed 
Is  favoured  by  Shamash, — his  life  shall  be  prolonged. 

VII 

The  moon-cult  of  Babylon  is  associated  chiefly 
with  two  centres,  Ur  and  Harran,  of  which  Ur  is  the 
older  and  the  more  important,  and  the  centre  of  a 
Sumerian  dynasty  which  represents  almost  the  last 
effort  of  the  non-Semitic  population  to  control  the 
Euphrates  Valley.^  Harran,  to  the  north,  falls  with- 
in the  domain  where  the  Semites  developed  their  great- 
est strength,  but  despite  this  fact  the  moon-cult  at 
that  place  may  represent  a  transfer  from  Ur,  as  that  of 
the  sun-god  was  transferred  from  Larsa  to  Sippar. 
The  god,  Sin,  appears  under  various  designations; 
prominent  among  them  is  that  of  En-Zu,  "the  lord  of 
knowledge,"  of  which  the  name  Sin  may  be  a  de- 
rivative.^ As  the  god  of  wisdom,  he  reminds  us  of 
Nebo,  but  his  knowledge  lies  more  particularly  in 
reading  the  signs  in  the  heavens.     It  is  in  astrological 

^  See  above,  p.  30,  seq. 

'  Sin  may  be  a  contraction  of  Si-in  and  this  in  turn  equivalent 
to  En-Zu  inverted.  See  Combe,  Histoire  du  Culte  de  Sin,  pp. 
I-16,  for  other  names  and  designations  of  the  moon-god. 


7-     Types  of  Gods. 

Fig.  I.     Seal  Cylinder  (hematite),  showing  Sin,  the  Moon-god. 

Before  Sin  stands  a  worshipper,  with  the  goddess  Ningal,  the 
consort  of  Sin,  acting  as  interceder.  The  three  circles  behind  the 
god  symbolise  the  moon-god.  See  Menant,  Collection  de  Clercq, 
Catalogue  No.  125. 

Fig.  2.     Seal  Cylinder  (green  porphyry),  showing  the  god  Ea. 

Into  Ea's  presence,  the  goddess  Damkina,  the  consort  of  Ea 
is  leading  a  worshipper.  The  goat  fish  or  Capricorn  under  the  seat 
of  the  god  is  the  symbol  of  Ea.  See  Menant,  Collection  de  Clercq, 
Catalogue  No.  106. 

Fig.  3.     Procession  of  gods. 

Rock-relief  at  Malatia  in  the  Anti-Taurus  range,  showing  seven 
deities  mounted  on  animals  that  represent  their  symbols.  The 
head  of  the  procession  is  formed  by  Ashur  on  two  animals  one  of 
which  is  the  Dragon — transferred  to  him  from  Enlil  and  Marduk, 
(see  comment  to  PL  30,  Fig.  2) — followed  by  his  consort  Ishtar 
of  Nineveh  on  the  lion,  Sin  the  moon-god  on  the  winged  bull, 
Enlil  (or  Marduk)  on  the  Dragon,  the  horn  of  which  is  worn  away, 
Shamash  on  a  horse  with  trappings,  Adad  on  a  winged  bull  and 
holding  the  lightning  fork  in  his  hand,  and  lastly  another  Ishtar 
on  a  lion — presumably  the  Ishtar  of  Arbela,  though  the  Ishtar 
of  Babylon  is  also  possible.  See  Place,  Ninive  et  VAssyrie,  PI. 
45,  from  which  it  would  appear  that  the  design  was  repeated  three 
times  on  the  monument.  See  also  Luschan,  Ausgrahungen  in 
Sendschirli,  p.  23  seq.  For  another  procession  of  gods  (on  an 
alabaster  slab  found  at  Nimroud)  see  Layard,  Monuments  of 
Nineveh,  i.,  PI.  65. 


Fiy;.  I.     v^in,  the  Aloon-uod 


'i 


i 


m 


Fig.  2.     Ea,  the  God  of  AVater 


Fig.  3.     Procession  of  Gods 


The  Pantheon  113 

lore  and  through  the  widespread  influence  of  astrology 
in  Babylonia  and  Assyria  that  Sin  appears  in  the  full 
exuberance  of  his  powers.  The  moon  as  the  great 
luminary  of  the  night,  with  its  constantly  changing 
phases,  forms,  in  fact,  the  basis  of  divination  through 
the  phenomena  obser\^ed  in  the  heavens.  This  form 
of  divination,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  subsequent  lecture, 
is  the  direct  outcome  of  speculation  in  the  temple- 
schools — not  an  outgrowth  of  popular  beliefs, — but 
such  was  the  importance  that  astrology  (which  may 
be  traced  back  to  the  days  of  Sargon)  acquired  in  the 
course  of  time  that  in  an  enumeration  of  the  gods, 
even  in  texts  other  than  astrological  compilations, 
Sin  invariably  takes  precedence  over  Shamash. 
The  Semitic  form  of  his  name  is  Nannar,  which  means 
"illumination"^  or  "luminary,"  and  this  appears  to 
be  a  designation  more  particularly  connected  with 
the  cult  at  Harran.  It  is  by  virtue  of  being  the 
great  luminary  of  the  night  also  that  he  becomes  the 
"father  of  the  gods,"  as  he  is  frequently  called  in 
hymns.  He  is  depicted  on  seal  cylinders^  as  an  old 
man  with  a  flowing  beard,  said  in  poetical  composi- 
tions to  be  of  a  lapis-lazuli  colour.  His  headgear 
consists  of  a  cap  on  which  the  horns  of  the  moon  are 

^  See  Lehmann-Haupt  in  Zeits.  fur  Assyriologie,  vol.  xvi.,  p. 

405. 

2  See  Plate  17,  Fig.  i,  and  Ward,  Seal  Cylinders  0}  Western 
Asia,  p.  21  seq. 

8 


114  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

generally  indicated;  and  it  is  interesting  to  note,  as 
pointing  to  the  influence  acquired  by  the  moon-cult, 
that  the  horns  became  a  general  symbol  of  divinity 
which,  e.g.,  Naram-Sin  attaches  to  his  head  on  the 
famous  monument  on  which  he  depicts  himself  as  a 
ruler  with  the  attribute  of  divinity.^ 

The  antiquity  of  the  moon-cult  is  attested  by  very 
ancient  Sumerian  hymns  that  have  come  down  to  us, 
in  which  he  is  frequently  described  as  sailing  along  the 
heavens  in  a  ship.^  It  is  a  reasonable  supposition 
that  the  moon's  crescent  suggested  this  picture  of  a 
sailing  bark.  The  association  between  Sin  and  the 
city  of  Ur  is  particularly  close,  as  is  seen  in  the  com- 
mon designation  of  this  centre  as  the  "city  of  Nan- 
nar."  No  doubt  the  political  importance  of  the 
place  had  much  to  do  with  maintaining  the  high  rank 
accorded  to  Sin  in  the  systematised  pantheon.  And 
yet  outside  of  his  sphere  in  Babylonian- Assyrian 
astrology,  the  moon-cult,  apart  from  special  centres 
like  Ur  and  Harran,  is  not  a  prominent  feature  in  the 
actual  worship.  The  agricultural  life  is  too  closely 
dependent  on  the  sun  to  permit  of  any  large  share  be- 
ing taken  by  the  moon.  He  is  not  among  the  Powers 
whose  presence  is  directly  felt  in  communities  whose 
chief  occupation  is  the  tilling  of  the  soil;  and,  as  has 

'  See  illustration  above,  p.  22. 

^  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  Part  xv.,  pi.  17.  See  Langdon,  Sum- 
erian and  Babylonian  Psalms,  p.  296. 


The  Pantheon  115 

already  been  suggested,  his  position  in  astrological 

divination  determines  the  relationship  in  which  he 

stands   to  both   gods   and   mankind.     The  goddess 

Ishtar  is  often  spoken  of  as  the  daughter  of  the  moon, 

but  this  is  due  to  the  identification  of  Ishtar  in  the 

astrological  system  with  Venus ;  it  is  natural  that 

Venus  should  be  regarded  as  the  offspring  of  the 

luminary  of  night,  just  as  the  other  planets,  and  the 

stars  in  general,  would  be  so  regarded.     This  did  not 

hinder  Ishtar  from  being  viewed  also  as  the  daughter 

of   Anu.     The  most  common  sign  with  which  the 

name  of  the  moon  is  written  is  the  number  "thirty" 

— taken  evidently  from   the  average  period  of   her 

course.^     Ishtar,  as  the  daughter  of  the  moon,  is, 

therefore,  written  with  the  number  fifteen,  while  the 

sun  appears  as  twenty.    So  at  every  turn  we  encounter, 

as  regards  the  moon,  some  association  with  astrology 

or  with  the  calendar,  which  was  naturally  regulated 

among  the  Babylonians,  as  among  all  other  nations, 

by  the  course  and  phases  of  the  moon.     There  was  no 

possibility  of  rivalry  between  the  moon  and  the  sun. 

Each  had  its  function;  and  the  harmonious  division 

of  the  direction  of  the  heavens  between  the  two  was 

the  form  in  which  the  relationship  between  them  was 

viewed  by  both  Babylonians  and  Assyrians.     The 

^  In  astrological  compositions  and  reports  all  months  are 
assumed  to  have  30  days.  It  is  only  in  the  late  astronomical 
texts  that,  through  the  more  accurate  regulation  of  the  calendar, 
months  of  29  and  30  days  are  distinguished. 


ii6  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

moon,  to  be  sure,  was  popularly  viewed  as  having 
been  captured  when  at  the  end  of  the  month  it  dis- 
appeared for  three  days,  but  its  discomfiture  was  not 
supposed  to  be  due  to  any  conflict  between  the  moon 
and  the  sun.  Hostile  powers  of  the  night  had  tem- 
porarily gained  the  supremacy  in  the  heavens,  and 
the  same  explanation  was  offered  in  the  case  of  an 
eclipse,  whether  of  the  moon  or  of  the  sun. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  harmonious  relationship, 
it  was  not  felt  to  be  an  inconsistency  that,  on  the  one 
hand,  Sin  should  be  the  "father"  of  the  gods,  while 
on  the  other  hand,  Anu  as  the  first  member  of  the 
"theological"  triad  should  be  also  thus  regarded  and 
that,  therefore,  Ishtar  should  be  at  once  the  daughter 
of  Sin  and  of  Anu.  As  a  solar  deity  Anu  directs  the 
heavens  by  day;  and  the  local  sun-god  of  Uruk  be- 
coming in  the  pantheon  devised  by  the  priests  the 
god  of  the  heavens  viewed  as  a  whole,  it  was  natural 
that  under  the  added  influence  of  the  astrological 
system  which  placed  the  seats  of  all  the  gods  in 
heaven,  Anu  should  become  the  progenitor  of  the 
entire  pantheon.  A  further  outcome  of  this  double 
current  of  theological  speculation  is  that  we  obtain 
by  the  side  of  the  triad  Anu,  Enlil,  and  Ea  (represent- 
ing, it  will  be  recalled,  the  three  great  divisions  of  the 
universe)  a  second  triad  of  a  more  restricted  character, 
betraying  the  influence  of  the  astrological  system, 
which  assigns  to  Sin  the  first  place,  followed  by  Sha- 


The  Pantheon  .117 

mash,  with  Ishtar,  as  the  planet  Venus,  as  the  third 
member.  From  another  point  of  view  these  three 
deities  summed  up  again  the  chief  manifestations  of 
divine  Power  in  the  universe :  Sin  as  the  leader  of  the 
hosts  of  the  mighty  heavens,  Shamash,  the  benefi- 
cent power  of  the  sun,  and  Ishtar,  by  virtue  of  her 
original  attribute,  as  the  goddess  of  the  earth,  the 
mother  of  life  and  the  source  of  fertility.' 

VIII 

To  this  triad,  a  fourth  figure  is  frequently  added — 
the  god  A  dad,  who  is  also  known  as  Ramman,  and 
who  in  several  respects  occupies  a  peculiar  position 
in  the  Babylonian- Assyrian  pantheon.  He  is  es- 
sentially a  god  of  storms  and  rains,  as  Enlil  originally 
was.  His  symbol  is  the  thunderbolt  or  the  forked 
lightning  which  he  holds  in  his  hand.^  Though  often 
referred  to  in  myths  of  a  high  antiquity,  and  not  in- 
frequently mentioned  in  votive  inscriptions  of  the 
earlier  riilers  of  Babylonia,  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
had  any  special  centre  of  worship  in  Babylonia  proper. 
There  is  no  city  specifically  associated  with  the  Adad 
cult.  This  fact,  together  with  the  circumstance  that 
a  common  designation  of  the  god  describes  him  as  a 
deity  of  the  west  or  Amurru,^  points  to  his  being  an 

^See  below,  p.  126  seq.  'See  Plate  15,  Fig.  3. 

3  Mar-Tu,  which  is  the  ideographic  form  of  Amurru  as  the  land 
of  the  west.    See  on  this  whole  subject,  Clay,  Amurru,  p.  77  seq. 


ii8  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

importation  into  the  Euphrates  Valley,  brought  there 
by  an  Amoritish  wave  of  migration,  and,  though  as- 
similated by  the  Babylonian  pantheon,  he  retains 
traces  of  his  foreign  origin.  Moreover,  at  the  time 
that  Adad,  or  Ramman,  was  carried  into  the  Eu- 
phrates Valley,  the  chief  political  and  religious  centres 
must  have  been  already  definitely  constituted,  so  that 
Adad  appears  in  the  character  of  an  interloper.  He 
bears  this  character  also  in  Assyria  for,  although  the 
oldest  temple  in  Assyria  is  dedicated  to  him,  it  is  in 
association  with  Anu.  The  double  temple  of  this 
pair  of  gods  at  Ashur  has  been  recently  thoroughly 
excavated,  ^  and  can  now  be  traced  back  to  the  very 
beginnings  of  Assyrian  history — to  about  2400  B.C. 
The  temple  is  always  spoken  of  as  that  of  Anu  and 
Adad;  and  this  unusual  combination  of  two  gods,  as- 
sociated in  the  name  of  the  temple,  suggests  that  the 
one  or  the  other  represents  an  afterthought.  Since 
the  name  of  Anu  always  appears  first,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  he  is  the  original  deity  in  whose  honour  the 
sanctuary  at  Ashur  was  erected. 

Anu,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  solar  deity  and  his 
association  with  Adad  is,  accordingly,  of  the  same 
nature  as  the  partnership  of  Anu  and  Enlil,  of  Ninib 
and  Enlil,  and  of  Shamash  and  Adad,  the  sun-god  and 

^  See  Andrae,  Anu-Adad  Tempel  (Leipzig,  1909).  The  exca- 
vations reveal  two  sanctuaries  with  a  common  entrance.  See 
p.  281  seq.  and  the  plan  on  Plate  24,  Fig.  2. 


The  Pantheon  119 

the  storm-god  in  all  these  cases  forming  a  duality 
which  symbolises  and  sums  up  the  two  chief  Powers  of 
nature  determining  the  welfare  of  the  country.  The 
addition  of  Adad  to  Anu  thus  reveals  the  introduction 
of  the  worship  of  the  former  in  the  old  capital  of  As- 
syria, and  the  importance  of  the  western  influence 
represented  by  Adad  may  be  gauged  by  the  position 
accorded  him  at  the  side  of  Anu.  Since  Prof.  Clay 
has  made  it  probable  that  traces  of  this  influence  are 
to  be  seen  in  some  of  the  conceptions  connected  with 
the  other  chief  deities  of  Babylonia — Ninib,  Shamash, 
Marduk,  and  even  Ea — we  may  assume  this  influence 
to  have  first  manifested  itself  in  Assyria,  and  then  to 
have  spread  to  the  south.  We  should  thus  have  a 
counter-current  to  that  northern  extension  of  the 
Euphratean  culture  that  would  account  for  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Anu  cult  in  the  old  city  of  Ashur.  That 
Anu,  and  not  Ninib  or  Shamash  should  have  been 
the  solar  deity  to  be  thus  carried  to  the  north  is 
an  indication  of  the  great  antiquity  of  the  set- 
tlement of  Ashur,  since  the  transfer  must  have 
taken  place  at  a  time  when  Uruk — the  seat  of  the 
Anu  cult  in  the  south — was  one  of  the  chief  centres 
of  sun-worship,  just  as  the  influence  of  Uruk  is  to 
be  seen  again  in  the  choice  of  Anu  as  the  first 
member  of  the  triad.  We  thus  have  indicated  the 
probable  order  in  the  predominance  of  the  centres 
of  sun-worship,  Anu,  Ninib,  Shamash,  and  Marduk, 


120  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

corresponding  to  the  centres,  Uruk,  Nippur,  Sippar, 
and  Babylon. 

Adad  is  also  designated  as  the  "great  mountain," 
precisely  as  is  Enlil,  and,  indeed,  he  is  so  completely 
a  counterpart  of  Enlil  that  this  was  perhaps  a  reason 
why  Adad  was  never  assigned  to  any  special  cult 
centre.  It  is  significant,  however,  that  in  the  col- 
lection of  astrological  omens  it  is  Adad  and  not  Enlil 
who  appears  as  the  representative  of  atmospheric 
disturbances  such  as  thunder,  lightning,  tempests, 
tornadoes,  inundations,  and  hail-storms — an  indica- 
tion, therefore,  that  the  astrological  system  was  not 
yet  worked  out  at  a  time  when  Enlil  held  supreme 
sway.  Correspondingly,  in  the  "liver"  omens — the 
other  great  division  of  Babylonian- Assyrian  divina- 
tion— the  deities  invoked  are  Shamash  and  Adad. 
The  home  of  the  Amorites  being  in  the  mountainous 
regions  of  northern  Palestine  and  Syria,  their  chief 
deity  would  naturally  be  a  mountain  god,  associated 
with  storms  and  thunder  and  lightning.  Like  Enlil 
and  Jahweh,  however,  Adad  at  least  in  his  old  home, 
Syria,  under  the  form  of  Hadad  takes  on  the  traits 
also  of  a  solar  deity.  There  are  some  indications 
that  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria  this  transformation, 
through  a  partial  assimilation  of  Adad  with  Enlil, 
likewise  took  place,  though  never  to  the  extent  of 
obscuring  the  original  character  of  the  god  as  the 
one  presiding  over  the  violent  phenomena  of  nature. 


PI.  1 8.     Fig.  I.     Symbols  of  Ashur,  the  Chief  God  of  Assyria. 

The  three  smaller  symbols  are  frequently  found  on  seal  cylinders 
and  on  Assyrian  monuments — the  symbol  being  generally  placed 
above  the  head  of  the  king.  The  central  one  of  the  three  is  the 
purer  and  more  genuine  symbol  of  Ashur  as  a  solar  deity — a  sun  disc 
with  protruding  rays.  To  this  symbol,  the  warrior  with  the  bow 
and  arrow  w  as  added — a  despiritualisation  that  reflects  the  martial 
spirit  of  the  Assyrian  empire.  The  larger  figure  which  appears 
to  be  the  top  of  an  Assyrian  standard,  carried  along  on  the  mili- 
tary expeditions  and  borne  into  the  midst  of  the  fray  to  symbolise 
the  presence  of  Ashur  as  the  protector  of  the  Assyrian  army,  shows 
the  sun's  rays,  and  bulls  as  symbols  of  the  sun-god,  while  the  circle 
within  which  these  symbols  and  the  full-length  picture  of  the 
warrior  are  placed  takes  the  place  of  the  disc.  Found  at  Khorsa- 
bad.  See  Botta  et  Flandin,  Monument  de  Ninive,  ii.,  PI.  158. 
Fig.  2.     Votive  Statuettes  (Copper)  Found  at  Telloh. 

Now  in  the  Louvre.  They  represent  female  figures  with  hands 
folded  across  the  breast,  and  terminating  in  a  point  which  would 
indicate  that  they  were  to  be  stuck  into  the  ground,  or  possibly 
into  the  walls.  See  De  Sarzec,  Decouvertes,  PL  I.  his,  and  p.  239 
seq.;  Heuzey,  Catalogue,  pp.  294-298. 


Fig.  I.     Symbols  of  the  God  Ashur 


Fig.  2.     Votive  Statuettes 


The  Pantheon  121 

IX 

In  Assyria  Anu  is  replaced  by  a  god,  bearing  the 
same  name  as  the  ancient  capital,  Ashur.  The  As- 
syrian theologians  themselves  explained  Ashur  as  a 
contraction  of  An-shar,  which  would  convey  the 
idea  of  "Anu  of  the  universe."  An  older  form  of 
Ashur  appears  to  be  Ashir,  which  may  have  the  gen- 
eral sense  of  "leader."^  Linguistically,  the  change 
of  Ashir  to  Ashur  can  be  accounted  for,  but  not  the 
transformation  of  An-shar  to  Ashur  or  Ashir;  so  that 
we  must  assume  the  "etymology"  of  Ashur,  proposed 
by  some  learned  scribe,  to  be  in  the  nature  of  a  play 
upon  the  name.  The  correct  instinct  underlying  this 
play  is,  however,  the  reminiscence  that  the  chief  god 
of  Ashur  was  originally  Anu,  whose  cult  was  trans- 
ferred from  Uruk,  or  some  other  seat  in  the  south, 
following  in  the  wake  of  the  northward  extension  of 
the  culture,  just  as  the  cult  of  Marduk  moved  from 
Eridu  to  Babylon.  This  presiding  deity  of  Ashur  was 
so  generally  termed  the  god  of  Ashur  that  in  time 
both  god  and  place  became  identical.  This  identifi- 
cation may  have  been  assisted  by  the  addition  of  the 
title  shar  to  Anu,  conveying  the  idea  of  large  sway, 
and  added,  perhaps,  in  order  to  distinguish  this  later 
Anu  from  his  southern  prototype.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
the  solar  character  of  Ashur  is  beyond  doubt.     He  is 

^  See  a  paper  by  the  writer  on  "The  God  Ashur"  in  the  Journal 
of  the  Amer.  Oriental  Society,  vol.  xxiv.,  pp.  288-301. 


122  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

the  counterpart  of  Anu,  as  well  as  of  Ninib  and  Sha- 
mash.  His  symbol  is  the  sun-disc  with  wavy  rays  ex- 
tending to  the  circumference  of  the  disc ' ;  and  though 
this  impressive  symbol  was  materialised,  so  to  speak, 
by  the  addition  of  a  warrior  with  an  arrow  within  the 
disc,  as  an  expression  of  the  warlike  attributes  as- 
sociated by  the  Assyrians  with  their  patron  deity, 
still  the  influence  of  the  symbol  was  not  lost,  in  lend- 
ing to  the  conception  of  the  deity  a  more  spiritual 
character  than  is  possible  when  gods  are  portrayed  in 
human  or  in  animal  shape;  and,  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  "^  it  was  the  Assyrians  who  thus  made  a  contribu- 
tion, of  no  small  import,  to  the  stock  of  religious  ideas 
which  they  owed  to  the  Babylonians. 

The  cult  of  Ashur  was  essentially  a  worship  devoid 
of  images.  This  did  not,  however,  prevent  the  god 
from  absorbing  the  traits  of  other  gods  to  whom  he 
stood  in  no  direct  relationship.  To  the  Assyrians 
Ashur,  naturally,  assumed  the  same  rank  as  Enlil 
acquired  in  the  older  Babylonian  pantheon,  and  as 
in  later  periods  Marduk  assumed.  He  becomes  in 
fact  the  Marduk  of  the  north,  and  like  Marduk  is  re- 
garded as  the  great  bel — the  lord  paramount.  Other 
members  of  the  pantheon  affect  his  colour, — little 
Ashurs  by  the  side  of  the  great  one.  In  a  manner, 
therefore,  somewhat  different  from  the  case  of  Mar- 
duk, he  becomes  the  dominating  figure  that  over- 

^  See  Plate  i8,  Fig.  i.  '  See  above,  p.  51  seq. 


The  Pantheon  123 

shadows  all  others.  He  is  the  Great  God,  the  God  of 
Gods  beside  whom  all  others  pale  into  insignificance. 
He  is  the  embodiment  of  the  genius  of  Assyria  and, 
with  the  definite  establishment  of  Assyria  as  a  great 
war  power  whose  watchword  is  conquest  and  the  aim 
of  whose  rulers  is  universal  sway,  Ashur  becomes 
first  and  foremost  a  war-lord,  the  protector  of  As- 
syrian armies,  and  whose  symbol  is  carried  into  camp 
and  battle  as  an  assurance  of  the  direct  presence  of 
their  god  in  the  midst  of  the  fray.  The  victories  of 
the  Assyrian  armies  were  triumphs  for  Ashur,  and  the 
booty  of  war  was  his  property.  The  standing  phrase 
in  the  annals  of  the  Assyrian  kings  is  that  "by  the 
help  of  Ashur"  the  enemy  was  overthrown. 

But  while  the  kings  of  Assyria  never  fail  to  give  to 
Ashur  the  homage  due  him,  and  invariably  begin  the 
enumeration  of  the  pantheon  with  his  name,  the  gods 
of  Babylonia  by  the  force  of  tradition  retain  their  in- 
fluence also  in  the  north.  The  greatest  among  these 
kings,  Tiglathpileser  I.,  Shalmaneser  III.,  Sargon, 
Sennacherib,  Esarhaddon,  and  Ashurbanapal,  mani- 
fest the  greatest  anxiety  to  associate  with  Ashur  all 
the  great  gods  of  the  pantheon, — Marduk,  Nebo,  Ea, 
Sin,  Shamash,  Adad,  Ninib,  Nergal,  and  Nusku. 
They  apparently  take  every  opportunity  of  enumerat- 
ing the  long  list  in  order  to  emphasise  their  attachment 
to  these  associates  of  their  patron  deity  and,  by 
implication,  the  devotion  of  all  the  great  gods  to  the 


124  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

service  of  themselves  as  kings.  To  the  title  "King  of 
Assyria,"  they  were  on  every  occasion  ambitious  to 
add  that  of  "King  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,"  and  "King 
of  the  Four  Regions."  To  these  titles  that  had  come 
down  to  them  from  hoary  antiquity,  they  even  added 
"lieutenant  of  Bel,"  to  indicate  their  control  of  the 
south,  and  "King  of  Universal  Rule,"  to  symbolise 
the  policy,  consistently  maintained,  of  their  conquest 
of  the  world.  To  the  array  of  gods,  with  Ashur  at  the 
head,  whom  they  invoke  as  the  protectors  of  their 
realm  and  allies  of  their  ambitions,  they  never  failed 
to  add  the  powerful  goddess  Ishtar. 

This  brings  us  in  a  general  survey  to  the  last  of  the 
important  deities  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  the  great 
mother-goddess,  worshipped  in  a  threefold  capacity 
as  the  goddess  of  fertility  and  vegetation,  as  the 
goddess  of  war,  and  as  the  goddess  of  love.  In  many 
respects  she  is  the  most  interesting  figure  in  the 
Baby  Ionian- Assyrian  pantheon. 


While  every  male  god  of  the  pantheon  had  a  con- 
sort, these  goddesses  had  but  a  comparatively  in- 
significant share  in  the  cult.  In  many  cases,  they 
have  not  even  distinctive  names  but  are  merely  the 
counterpart  of  their  consorts,  as  Nin-lil,  "lady  of  the 
storm,"  by  the  side  of  Er^-lil,  "lord  of  the  storm, "^ 

^  See  above,  p.  69. 


The  Pantheon  125 

or  still  more  indefinitely  as  Nin-gal,  "the  great  lady," 
the  consort  of  the  moon-god  Sin,  or  as  Dam-kina, 
"the  faithful  spouse,"  the  female  associate  of  Ea,  or  as 
Shala,  ''the  lady"  paramount,  the  consort  of  Adad. 
In  other  cases  they  are  specified  by  titles  that  furnish 
attributes  reflecting  the  traits  of  their  consorts,  as 
Sarpanit,  "the  brilliantly  shining  one,"  the  common 
designation  of  the  consort  of  Marduk — clearly  an  al- 
lusion to  the  solar  quality  of  Marduk  himself, — or  as 
Tashmit,  "obedience,"  the  consort  of  Nebo — plausibly 
to  be  explained  as  reflecting  the  service  which  Nebo, 
as  son,  owes  to  his  father  and  superior,  Marduk.  In 
the  case  of  Anu  we  find  his  consort  designated  by 
the  addition  of  a  feminine  ending  to  his  name.  As 
Antum,  this  goddess  is  merely  a  pale  reflection  of  her 
lord  and  master.  Somewhat  more  distinctive  is  the 
name  of  the  consort  of  Ninib,  Gula,  meaning  "great 
one."  This,  at  least,  emphasises  the  power  of  the 
goddess,  though  in  reality  it  is  Ninib  to  whom 
"greatness"  attaches,  while  Gula,  or  Bau,'  as  she  is 
also  termed,  shines  by  reflected  glory. 

In  all  these  instances  it  is  evident  that  the  associa- 
tion of  a  female  counterpart  with  the  god  is  merely  an 
extension  to  the  circle  of  the  gods  of  the  social  cus- 
toms prevalent  in  human  society;  and  the  inferior 
rank  accorded  to  these  goddesses  is,  similarly,  due  to 
the  social  position  assigned  in  the  ancient  Orient  to 

^  The  meaning  of  Bau  is  quite  uncertain. 


126  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

woman,  who,  while  enjoying  more  rights  than  is  or- 
dinarily supposed,  is  yet,  as  wife,  under  the  complete 
control  of  her  husband — an  adjunct  and  helpmate,  a 
junior  if  not  always  a  silent  partner,  her  husband's 
second  self,  moving  and  having  her  being  in  him. 

But  by  the  side  of  these  more  or  less  shadowy  con- 
sorts there  is  one  goddess  who  occupies  an  exceptional 
position,  and  even  in  the  oldest  historical  period  has  a 
rank  equal  to  that  of  the  great  gods.  Appearing 
under  manifold  designations,  she  is  the  goddess  as- 
sociated with  the  earth,  the  great  mother-goddess  who 
gives  birth  to  everything  that  has  life — animate  and 
inanimate.  The  conception  of  such  a  power  clearly 
rests  on  the  analogy  suggested  by  the  process  of  pro- 
creation, which  may  be  briefly  defined  as  the  com- 
mingling of  the  male  and  female  principles.  All 
nature,  constantly  engaged  in  the  endeavour  to  re- 
produce itself,  was  thus  viewed  as  a  result  of  the  com- 
bination of  these  two  principles.  On  the  largest 
scale  sun  and  earth  represent  such  a  combination. 
The  earth  bringing  forth  its  infinite  vegetation  w^as  re- 
garded as  the  female  principle,  rendered  fruitful  by 
the  beneficent  rays  of  the  sun.  "Dust  thou  art  and 
unto  dust  shalt  thou  return"  illustrates  the  exten- 
sion of  this  analogy  to  human  life,  which  in  ancient 
myths  is  likewise  represented  as  springing  into  ex- 
istence   from    mother-earth.^       It    is,    therefore,    in 

'  On  the  wide  extension  of  this  view,  and  the  numerous  folk- 


The  Pantheon  127 

centres  of  sun-worship,  like  that  of  Uruk,  where  we 
find  the  earHest  traces  of  the  distinctive  personality  of 
a  mother-goddess.  To  this  ancient  centre  we  can  trace 
the  distinctive  name,  Ishtar,  as  the  designation  of 
this  goddess,  though  even  at  Uruk,  she  is  more  com- 
monly indicated  by  a  vaguer  title,  Nana,  which 
conveys  merely  the  general  idea  of  "lady."  The  open- 
ing scene  of  the  great  national  epic  of  Babylonia, 
known  as  the  adventures  of  Gilgamesh,  is  laid  in 
Uruk,  which  thus  appears  as  the  place  in  which  the  old- 
est portion  of  the  composite  tale  originated.^  In 
various  parts  of  this  epic,  the  goddess,  Ishtar  is 
brought  forward,  accompanied  by  her  maidens, 
who,  symbolising  various  phases  of  the  feminine 
principle,  compose  a  court  of  love  and  passion. 
Ishtar  woos  Gilgamesh,  the  hero  of  the  epic,  here  por- 
trayed as  a  solar  deity;  but  the  hero  rejects  the  ad- 
vances of  the  goddess  and  reminds  her  of  the  sad 
fate  incurred  by  her  lovers,  who  after  a  brief  union 
are  driven  forth  from  her  embrace,  and  encounter 
various  misfortunes,  that  involve  a  loss  of  vitaHty. 
The  tale  is  clearly  a  form  of  the  general  nature-myth 

customs  and  religious  or  semi-religious  rites  to  which  the  con- 
ception of  the  earth  as  the  great  mother  of  mankind  (as  of  nature 
in  general)  gives  rise,  see  Albrecht  Dietrich's  valuable  and 
suggestive  monograph,  Mutter  Erde  (Berlin,  1905),  more  partic- 
ularly pp.  27-35. 

^  See  chap,    xxiii.  of  the    writer's   Religion   of  Babylon   and 
Assyria. 


128  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  the  union  of  sun  and  earth,  which,  after  a  short 
time,  results  in  the  dedine  of  the  sun's  force.  Tam- 
muz,  an  ancient  personification  of  the  sun  of  the 
springtime,  is  named  as  the  first  of  Ishtar's  lovers; 
he  becomes  her  consort  and  is  then  slain  by  the 
goddess,  and  consigned  to  the  nether  world,  the 
abode  of  the  dead.  The  promise  made  by  Ishtar 
to  Gilgamesh  to  present  him  with  a  chariot  of 
lapis-lazuli,  and  to  shelter  him  in  a  palace  of 
plenty,  unmistakably  points  to  the  triumph  of  the 
sun  when  vegetation  is  at  its  height.  Tammuz 
and  Ishtar,  like  Gilgamesh  and  Ishtar,  thus  repre- 
sent the  combination  of  the  two  principles  which 
bring  about  life;  and  upon  their  separation  follow 
decay  and  death. 

Thus,  parallel  with  the  dual  principle  of  sun  and 
storm  (variously  personified  as  Anu  and  Enlil,  Ninib 
and  Enlil,  Shamash  and  Adad,  representing  the  two 
chief  Powers  controlling  the  welfare  of  the  country), 
we  have  another  and  more  philosophical  duality,  re- 
presenting the  male  and  female  principles;  and  this, 
likewise,  is  variously  personified.  Under  its  influence 
the  consorts  of  the  chief  gods  become  forms  of  the 
great  mother-goddess.  Sarpanit,  the  consort  of  Mar- 
duk,  becomes  an  Ishtar  and  is  frequently  so  desig- 
nated. In  the  north,  Ishtar  becomes  the  consort  of 
Ashur,  and  is  then  still  further  differentiated  as  the 
Ishtar  of   Nineveh,   the   Ishtar   of  Arbela,  and  the 


The  Pantheon  129 

"Queen  of  Kidmumi."^  Though  we  are  no  longer 
able  to  follow  the  process  in  detail  which  led  to  the 
disassociation  of  Ishtar  from  the  local  limitations 
that  must  originally  have  hemmed  her  in,  there  can  be 
no  question  that  the  title,  Ishtar,  became,  in  time,  the 
general  designation  of  the  supreme  goddess  herself, 
who,  in  association  with  some  personification  of  the 
supreme  male  principle,  becomes  virtually  the  only 
distinctive  female  figure  in  the  pantheon. 

The  name,  Ishtar,  becomes,  in  fact,  the  generic 
designation  of  "goddess,"  from  which  a  plural 
ishtardti  is  formed  to  convey  the  idea  of  "goddesses," 
or  consorts  of  male  deities,  independent  of  the  spe- 
cific character  of  the  latter.  In  the  astrological  sj^s- 
tem  developed  in  Babylonia,  Ishtar  is  identified  with 
the  planet  Venus,  and  as  such  becomes  known  as  the 
"queen  of  heaven,"  furnishing  gxiidance  for  mankind 
through  the  omens  connected  with  her  double  char- 
acter of  evening  and  morning  star.  It  is  due  to  this 
more  purely  speculative  phase  of  the  conceptions 
connected  with  Ishtar  that  she  is  represented  in  the 
Gilgamesh  epic  as  the  daughter  of  Anu,  and  not,  as  we 
might  have  expected,  his  consort.  The  epic  reflects 
herein,  as  in  other  particulars,  the  results  of  the  the- 
ological and  astrological  elaboration  of  popular  be- 
liefs, which,  as  we  have  seen,  led  to  Anu  becoming  the 

^  Originally  a  designation  of  some  local  goddess.  See  Jas- 
trow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i.,  p.  243,  note. 


130  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

personification  of  the  heavens  as  a  whole.  All  the 
planets,  including  Ishtar,  become  therefore  Ann's 
children,  just  as  from  another  aspect  of  astrological 
speculation  Ishtar  is  viewed  as  the  daughter  of  the 
moon-god  Sin.^  Sin  is  the  head  of  the  hosts  of 
heaven,  and  in  the  astrological  system,  as  we  have 
seen,  takes  precedence  of  the  sun,  thereby  assuming 
the  highest  position  as  "the  father  of  the  gods,"  and 
forming  the  basis  of  all  divination-lore  derived  from 
the  observance  of  heavenly  phenomena. 

The  goddess  Ishtar  of  Uruk,  though  traced  back  to 
an  early  period  and  undergoing  various  transforma- 
tions, was  not,  as  will,  I  trust,  have  become  evident 
by  this  time,  peculiar  to  that  place.  A  similar  deity, 
symbolising  the  earth  as  the  source  of  vegetation — a 
womb  wherein  seed  is  laid, — must  have  been  wor- 
shipped in  other  centres,  where  the  sun-cult  prevailed. 
So,  as  has  already  been  intimated,  the  consort  of  the 
old  solar  deity  Ninib  represents  this  great  female 
principle.  Their  union  finds  a  striking  expression  in 
a  myth  which  represents  the  pair,  Ninib  and  Gula 
(or  Bau),  celebrating  a  formal  marriage  ceremony 
on  the  New  Year's  day  (coincident  with  the  vernal 
equinox),  receiving  wedding  presents,  and  ushered 
into  the  bridal  chamber  with  all  the  formalities  in- 
cident to  the  marriage  rite,  as  observed  to  this  day  in 

^  She  is  represented  by  the  number  15 — the  half  of  30,  the 
symbol  of  the  moon.     See  above,  p.  115. 


The  Pantheon  131 

the  modern  Orient.  When,  therefore,  the  Psalmist 
describes  the  sun '  as 

Coming  like  a  bridegroom  from  his  bridal  chamber, 

he  is  using  a  metaphor  derived  from  the  old  myth  of 
the  marriage  of  the  sun  with  the  earth  in  the  happy- 
springtime  of  nature's  awakening. 

This  conception  of  a  great  mother-goddess  was  not 
limited  to  the  Euphrates  Valley.  It  is  found  where- 
ever  Semites  settled^  and,  apparently  through  their 
influence,  spread  to  other  nations.  The  Ashtart  of 
the  Phoenicians  (Greek  Astarte)  and  the  Ashtoreth — 
an  intentional  corruption  of  Ashtart^ — of  the  Ca- 
naanites,  all  represent  the  same  goddess  and  the  same 
idea  of  the  combination  of  the  two  principles,  male 
and  female,  designated  by  the  Phoenicians  and  Ca- 
naanites  as  Baal.    On  Hittite  monuments  represent a- 

*  Psalms  xix.,  5. 

*  See  Barton,  'The  Semitic  Ishtar  Cult"  (American  Journal  of 
Semitic  Languages,  vols.  ix.  and  x.). 

3  The  form  Ashtoreth  which  comes  to  us  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment was  given  the  vowels  of  a  word  bosheth,  "shame,"  in  order  to 
avoid  the  sound  of  the  objectionable  name.  Ashtart  is  Ishtar 
plus  a  feminine  ending,  which  suggests  that  the  name  itself  was 
once  a  general  designation — meaning  perhaps  "leader"  like 
Ashur, — applicable  to  either  a  male  or  a  female  deity.  As  a 
means  of  differentiation,  a  feminine  ending  was,  therefore,  at- 
tached to  it  by  some  branches  of  the  Semites.  In  South- Arabic 
inscriptions,  the  equivalent  form  Athtar  appears  as  a  male  deity. 
See  Barton,  A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  p.  87  seq.,  who  finds  in 
this  double  aspect  of  Ishtar  a  support  for  his  theory  of  a  trans- 
formation of  female  deities  to  male  deities. 


132  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

tions  of  the  mother-goddess  are  found,  and  classical 
writers  record  the  tradition  that  the  worship  of  Aphro- 
dite among  the  Greeks  originated  in  Cyprus,  where 
traces  of  the  Ash  tart  cult  have  been  discovered. 
Ishtar  is,  therefore,  distinctively  a  Semitic  idealisa- 
tion, as  the  name  is  certainly  Semitic.  Both  the  con- 
ception and  name  must  therefore  have  been  carried 
to  the  Euphrates  by  the  earliest  Semitic  settlers. 

As  the  one  great  goddess  and  as  the  consort  of  the 
chief  god  of  the  pantheon,'  Ishtar,  in  addition  to  her 
specific  character,  naturally  takes  the  traits  of  her 
consort.  A  close  association  of  .two  deities,  as.  we 
have  seen,  always  brings  about  a:  certain  interchange 
of  attributes,  just  as  two  persons  living  together  are 
very  apt  to  acquire  each  other's  peculiarities,  and  eveii 
come  to  look  alike.  Enlil  becomes  like  Ninib,  and 
Ninib  like  Enlil,  and  so  the  association  of  Ishtar — 
under  whatsoever  name — with  the  sun-god  leads  to  her 
being  described  in  terms  which  might  with  equal  pro- 
priety be  addressed  to  Ninib,  Nergal,  Marduk,  or 
Shamash.  She  is  called  "the  light  of  heaven  and 
earth,"  "the  shining  torch  of  heaven,"  "light  of  all 
dwellings."  Her  sheen  is  compared  to  a  fire  that 
illumines  the  land.  In  part,  no  doubt,  such  descrip- 
tions arise  from  the  astrological  identification  of  the 
goddess  with  the  planet  Venus,  but  they  occur  also  in 
compositions  which', are  free  from  any  allusions  to  the 
planetary  orb ;  and  when  we  find  her  also  apostrophised 


The  Pantheon  133 

as  the  one  who  "  directs  mankind,"  '•'  judging  the  cause 
of  man  with  justice  and  righteousness,"  and  "as  pun- 
ishing the  bad  and  the  wicked,"  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  such  traits,  which,  we  have  seen,  ^  form  the  special 
prerogatives  of  the  sun-god,  are  the  reflections  of  her 
association  with  that  deity.  Again,  the  association 
with  Enlil,  the  storm-god,  whose  consort  Ninlil,  as 
has  been  pointed  out,  becomes  an  Ishtar,  must  be  re- 
garded as  the  factor  which  leads  to  Ishtar's  being  de- 
scribed as  " a  controller  of  the  clouds,"  "a,  raging  storm 
devastating  heaven  and  earth," ^  whose  voice  "thun- 
ders over  all  parts  of  the  universe."  The  association 
with  the  water-god  Ea  is  to  be  seen  again  in  the  figure 
of  the  goddess  presiding  over  streams  and  canals.^ 

More  significant  still  is  the  development  of  the 
mother  goddess  into  the  Ishtar  of  battles,  pictured  as 
armed  with  bow  and  quiver,  and  encouraging  the 
army  to  the  fray.  This  transformation  is  evidently 
due  to  the  reflection  of  the  warlike  attributes  of  her 
consort — the  patron  deity  of  a  great  centre  or  the 
chief  god  of  the  entire  pantheon,  who  naturally  be- 
comes the  protector  of  the  ruler  and  of  his  army,  either 
for  defence  or  offence.''     A  storm-god  like  Enlil  was 

^  Above,  p.  III. 

2  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i,,  p.  535.  3  Jb. 

4  See  the  titles  of  Ishtar  in  the  list,  Cuneiform  Texts,  Part 
xxiv.,  Plate  41,  emphasising  her  martial  character,  followed  by 
others  that  belorig  to  her  as  the  mother-goddess,  and  the  god- 
dess of  vegetation. 


134  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

especially  adapted  to  become  a  god  of  war, — but  so, 
also,  was  a  deity  like  Nergal,  personified  as  the  de- 
structive power  of  the  fierce  rays  of  the  sun  of  mid- 
summer. We  have  seen  how  Ninib,  the  sun-god  of  the 
spring,  also  takes  on  the  traits  of  the  warrior  Enlil,  his 
father.  Shamash,  likewise,  is  not  merely  the  "judge 
of  heaven  and  earth"  but  also  the  "warrior,"  and  is 
very  frequently  so  termed;  and  when  Marduk,  as  the 
head  of  the  later  pantheon,  receives  the  qualities  of 
all  the  great  gods,  he  too  becomes  a  god  of  battles 
and  passes  on  those  qualities  to  his  consort  Sarpanit, 
identified  with  Ishtar.  In  an  ancient  hymn,  at- 
tached to  a  song  of  praise  in  honour  of  Hammurapi^ 
(probably  an  adaptation  of  a  composition  much  earlier 
than  the  time  of  the  great  conqueror),  Ishtar  is  de- 
scribed as  the  deity  who  furnishes  aid  "in  war  and 
battle."  In  many  of  the  religious  compositions  pre- 
pared for  her  cult,  both  of  the  earlier  and  of  the  later 
periods,  the  goddess  is  called  "the  warlike  Ishtar," 
"the  powerful  one  among  the  goddesses,"  the  martial 
"lady  of  victory,"  "girded  for  the  fray,"  and  in- 
voked to  secure  the  stability  of  the  throne  and  of  the 
kingdom.^ 

More  particularly  in  Assyria,  in  association  with 
the  war-lord  Ashur — reflecting  the  martial  genius  of 
king  and  people, — is  she  celebrated  in  high-sounding 

^  See  Schrader,  Keilinschriftliche  Bibliothek,  iii.,  i,  p.  112. 
*  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i.,  P-  539  seq. 


The  Pantheon  135 

terms  as  the  lady  of  war  and  battles.  In  an  impres- 
sive passage  in  one  of  Ashurbanapal's  inscriptions 
the  king  describes  how,  on  the  eve  of  an  encounter 
with  the  Elamites,  Ishtar  with  the  quiver  on  her 
shoulder,  armed  with  bow  and  sword,  appears  to 
him  in  a  vision  of  the  night  and  proclaims,  "I  walk 
before  Ashurbanapal,  the  King,  created  by  my 
hands." ^  It  is  Ishtar  who  on  another  occasion  ap- 
pears clothed  in  flames  of  fire  and  rains  destruction 
on  the  Arabian  host.^  Ashurbanapal  appears  to 
have  been  particularly  devoted  to  the  cult  of  Ishtar, 
though  he  merely  followed,  therein,  the  example  of 
his  father  Esarhaddon,  who  restored  her  temple  at 
Uruk.  When  he  takes  Susa,  the  capital  of  Elam,  his 
first  step  is  to  restore  to  its  resting-place,  in  the  temple 
E-Anna  at  Uruk,  the  statue  of  the  goddess  which  1635 
years  before  {i.e.,  2300  B.C.)  had  been  captured  by 
the  Elamites.  3  He  almost  invariably  associates  the 
name  of  Ishtar  with  Ashur.  At  the  command  of 
these  two  deities  he  enters  on  his  campaigns.  Ashur 
and  Ishtar,  representing  once  more  the  combination 
of  sun  and  earth — the  male  and  female  principles, — 
send  the  king  encouraging  signs,  and  stand  by  him 
in  the  thick  of  the  fight. 

The  contrast  to  this  conception  of  the  warlike 

^  Rawlinson,  v.,  Plate  5,  lOO  (Schrader,  Keilinschriftliche  Bihlio- 
thek,  ii.,  p.  201).     See  Plate  19,  Fig.  i. 

'  Plate  9,  79-81.  3  Plate  6,  107-124. 


136  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Ishtar  is  the  goddess  who,  as  the  symbol  of  creation, 
becomes  the  goddess  of  human  love.  Ishtar  as  the 
mother-goddess  is  not  only  the  protector  of  flocks, 
and  filled  with  love  for  the  animal  world,  but  the 
merciful  progenitor  of  mankind ;  and  when  a  destruc- 
tive deluge  sweeps  away  her  offspring,  she  is  the  first 
among  the  gods  to  manifest  her  grief.  In  the  Baby- 
lonian account  of  the  deluge — incorporated  in  the 
Gilgamesh  epic — she  is  described  as  weeping  for  her 
offspring,  which  she  complains  "fill  the  sea  like  so 
many  fish,"^  and  her  sorrow  arouses  the  sympathy 
of  the  other  gods,  who  pity  the  sad  fate  of  mankind, 
brought  about  at  the  instigation  of  Enlil  and  his 
divine  consort.  In  a  more  real  sense  than  is  true  of 
such  gods  as  Enlil,  Anu,  Marduk,  Ashur,  or  even 
Ea,  she  is  the  creator  of  mankind,  "directing  all 
births,"  as  it  is  said  of  her.  She  is  described  as  the 
mother-goddess  (in  a  text^  which  sets  forth  the  way 
in  which  the  gods  are  represented  by  images,)  "with 
exposed  breasts,  carrying  a  child  on  her  left  arm, 
sucking  her  breast."  Votive  figurines  have  been 
found  in  Babylonia  answering  to  this  description, 
and  it  is  a  plausible  conjecture  that  they  were  de- 
posited in  the  temple  or  shrines  of  Ishtar  by  women 
who  wished  to  secure  the  aid  of  the  goddess  in  the 

^Tablet  xi.,  1 17-126.  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (English  ed.), 
p.  501. 

»  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  Part  xvii.,  Plate.  42,  col.  ii,  6-7.  See 
Plate  19,  Fig.  2. 


PI.   19.     Types  of  the  Goddess  Ishtar. 

Fig.  I.  Ishtar  as  the  goddess  of  war.  Stele  of  Anu-banini,  King  of 
Lulubu  representing  himself  in  front  of  the  goddess  Inninna  (or 
Ishtar)  and  erected  in  commemoration  of  his  victories  in  the 
mountain  of  Batir  (Zagros  range).  It  is  carved  on  a  rock  in  the 
district  of  Zohab  between  Hassanabad  and  Ser-i-Pul.  See  De  Mor- 
gan, Mission  Scientifique  en  Perse,  vol.  iv.,  PI.  X.,  and  p.  161 
seq.;  De  Morgan  and  Scheil,  Recueil  de  Travaux,  vol.  xii.,  pp. 
100-106. 

Fig.  2.     Ishtar,  the  Mother-goddess. 

Terra-cotta  figurine  found  at  Telloh  and  now  in  the  Louvre, 
representing  the  naked  goddess  with  a  child  in  her  arms.  A 
similar  figure  was  found  at  Babylon.  See  Heuzey,  Figurines  An- 
tiques, PI.  2,  Fig.  3;  and  Catalogue,  p.  356;  De  Sarzec,  Dccouvertes, 
p.  254. 

Fig.  3.     Ishtar,  the  Goddess  of  Love. 

Naked  figure  with  accentuation  of  the  female  parts.  Terra- 
cotta figurine.  Exact  provenance  in  Mesopotamia  unknown.  Now 
in  the  Louvre.  See  Heuzey,  Catalogue,  pp.  357-358.  The  naked 
goddess  appears  frequently  on  seal  cylinders.  See  Heuzey, 
Origines  Orientales  de  VArt,  p.  11;  Ward,  Seal  Cylinders  of  Western 
Asia,  Chap.  XXVI. 


CD 

> 

O     O 

CO  '- 

^'    o 


o 


/.  .  The  Pantheon .  .  137 

hour  of  childbirth.  A  hymn,  embodying  addresses 
of  the  god  Nebo  to  Ashurbanapal,^  reminds  the  king 
of  the  protection  that  was  granted  him  when  he 
"lay  in  the  lap  of  the  queen  of  Nineveh,"  i.e.,  Ishtar, 
and  was  suckled  by  her  breasts.  The  picture  is  evi- 
dently suggested  by  figurines  portraying  Ishtar  as 
the  niirse  of  mankind.  -  •  . 

This  phase  of  the  goddess  is  emphasised  in  the 
incident  in  the  Gilgamesh  epic,  on  which  we  have 
already  touched,^  when  she  becomes  enamoured  of 
the  hero  Gilgamesh.  Despite  the  veiled  language  of 
mythological  metaphor,  one  recognises  that  there  is 
another  and  perfectly  natural  side  to  this  goddess  of 
love.  She  is  the  goddess  of  the  human  instinct,  or 
passion  which  accompanies  human  love.  Gilgamesh, 
it  will  be  recalled,  reproaches  her  with  abandoning 
the  objects  of  her  passion  after  a  brief  period  of  union. 
This  is  brought  out  even  more  strikingly  in  another 
part  of  the  epic  where  Uruk  is  described  as  the  dwell- 
ing of  Anu  and  Ishtar,  and  as  the  city  where  public 
maidens  accept  temporary  partners,  assigned  to  them 
by  Ishtar.  The  enticements  of  these  maidens,  who 
win  men  by  their  charms,  are  described  in  so  frank 
and  naif  a  manner  as  to  shock  the  sensibilities  of  the 
modern  mind.  In  such  descriptions,  found  else- 
where in  Babyloni-an- Assyrian  literature,   we  must 

^  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i.,  p.  444. 
*  Above,  p.  127  seq. 


138  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

recognise  the  reverse  of  the  medallion.  Ishtar,  as 
the  mother  of  mankind,  is  also  she  who  awakens 
passion.  She  is  attended  by  maidens  who  appear  to 
be  her  priestesses;  these  may  well  be  the  prototypes 
of  the  Houris  with  whom  Mohammed  peopled  the 
paradise  reserved  for  true  believers.  Ishtar,  her- 
self, is  called  by  a  term,  kadisJiHi,  that  acquires  the 
sense  of  "sacred  prostitute";  and  while  the  famous 
passage  in  Herodotus,^  wherein  is  described  the 
"shameful  custom"  of  the  enforced  yet  willing  de- 
filement of  every  woman  in  Babylon  in  the  temple, 
before  being  eligible  for  marriage,  rests  in  part  on  an 
exaggeration,  in  part  on  a  misunderstanding  of  a 
religious  rite,  yet  it  has  a  basis  of  truth  in  the  afore- 
said religious  custom  in  connection  with  the  worship 
of  Ishtar,  which  became  an  outward  expression  of 
the  spiritual  idea  of  the  goddess  as  the  mother  of 
parturition,  and  as  an  instigator  of  the  passion  under- 
lying the  sexual  mystery. 

The  pages  of  the  Old  Testament  illumine  the  char- 
acter of  some  of  these  rites  connected  with  the  wor- 
ship of  the  divine  mother,  whose  priestesses  in  various 
guises  represented  symbolically  the  marriage  union. 
The  Hebrew  prophets,  to  whom  all  these  rites  were 
obscene,  tell  us  something  of  the  customs  which  the 
Hebrews  themselves,  in  common  with  the  nations 

^  Herod.,  i.,  199.  See  E.  S.  Hartland  in  Anthropological  Es- 
says presented  to  E.  B.  Tylor,  pp.   189-202. 


The  Pantheon  139 

around,  at  one  time  practised.^  Their  language  is 
generally  veiled,  for  they  abhorred  even  any  allusion 
to  the  practices  which  they  condemned  so  uncom- 
promisingly; but  when  these  stern  moralists,  in  de- 
nouncing the  people  for  falling  away  from  the  true 
worship  of  Jahweh,  make  frequent  use  of  the  meta- 
phor of  a  faithless  wife,  berating  Israel  and  Judah  for 
having  polluted  the  land  with  their  w^ickedness, 
"playing  the  harlot,"  as  they  term  it,  "on  every  high 
mountain  and  under  every  green  tree"  (Jeremiah 
iii.,  6),  they  refer  to  some  of  those  rites  which  were 
intended,  both  in  Babylonia  and  in  Canaan  as  else- 
where, as  a  sacred  homage  to  the  great  goddess  of 
love  and  of  passion.  The  metaphor,  we  may  be 
certain,  was  not  chosen  at  random,  but  suggested  by 
actual  practices  that  formed  part  of  the  cult  of  Ashtart. 
The  Deuteronomic  code^  finds  it  necessary  to  insert 
an  express  clause  that  there  shall  be  no  kedesha,  i.e., 
no  sacred  defilement,  among  the  daughters  of  Israel, 
and  that  the  "harlot's  gift" — clearly  again  some  re- 
ligious rite — shall  not  be  brought  into  the  house  of 
Jahweh.  Are  we  to  see  in  such  rites  among  the  Sem- 
ites the  evidence  of  foreign  influence?  It  is  not  im- 
possible,  especially  since   Dr.  W.  Hayes  Ward  has 

^The  incident  related  in  Numbers  xxv.,  6-9,  rests  upon  some 
rite  of  sacred  prostitution,  no  longer  understood  by  the  later 
compilers. 

'  Deut.  xxiii.,  18. 


1*4^'  Religion  m  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

recently  shown  ^  that  the  portrayal  on  seal  cylinders 
of  the  naked  goddess  with  what  is  distinctively  female 
emphasised,  is. du^' to  the  Hittites,  who  as  we  now 
know,  early  came  into  contact  with  the  Semites  both 
in  the  Euphrates  .Valley  and  in  Canaan  and  else- 
where. On  the  other  hand,  the  transition  from  the 
conception  of  the  mother-goddess  to  that  of  the  god- 
dess of  human  love  is  so  easy  and  natural,  that  it  is 
not  surprising  to  find  that  after  the  thought  had  once 
been  suggested  through  extraneous  channels,  ex- 
pressive rites  should  have  made  their  way  into  the 
cult.  As  often  happens  when  a  period  of  degeneracy 
sets  in,  it  is  these  rites  lending  themselves  to  a  mystic 
symbolism  that  retain  their  hold  and  survive  other 
phases  of  the  Ishtar  cult. 

Be  this  as  it  jjiay,  the  two  orders  of  ideas,  the  one 
represented  by  the  duality  of  sun-gods  and  storm-gods, 
the  other"  by  tfte  combination  of  the  sun  with  the 
earth,'  were  harmoniously  blended  in  the  speculative 
system  devised  in  the  schools  of  the  priests.  We  find, 
by  the  side  of  the  supreme  triad  Anu,  EnHl,  and  Ea, 
the  tendency  to  form  other  groups  of  three,  whereof 
Ishtar  was  invariably  one,^  such  as  Shamash,  Adad, 
and  Ishtar,  or,  under  the  influence  of  the  astrological 
system,  Sin,  Shamash,  and  Ishtar,  or  even  combina- 
tions of  four  Powers;  Sin,  Shamash,  Adad,  and  Ishtar, 

*  Seal  Cylinders  of  Western  Asia  (Washington,  1910),  p.  161  seq. 
See  also  Plate  19,  Fig.  3.  =»  See  above,  p.  117. 


I 


The  Pantheon    •  '   141 

introduced  to  symbolise  and  sum  up  the  chief  forces 
of  nature  determining  the  prosperity  of  the  land  and 
the  welfare  of  its  inhabitants.  It  is  significant  that 
of  fhe  Powers  involved  in  such  combihations,  Ishtar 
alone  passed  beyond  the  confines  of  Semite  settle- 
ments and  continued  to  exercise  a  profound  influence 
after  all  memory  of  the  other  gods  had  been  lost. 

There  is  surely  something  impressive  in  the  persist- 
ence of  the  cult  of  the  mother-goddess ;  for  when  faith 
in  the  gods  of  Greece  and  Rome  began  to  wane, 
people  turned  to  the  East  and,  giving  to  this  cult  a 
mystic  interpretation,  found  their  lost  faith  in  the 
homage  to  the  Mater  magna  of  Asia  Minor,  who,'  was 
merely  a  slightly  disguised  Semitic  Ishtar.  Several 
centuries  after  almost  all  traces  of  the  Babylonian- 
Assyrian  religion  had  vanished,  the  Romans  brought 
to  Rome  from  distant  Phrygia  the  sacred  statue  of 
Kybele — as  the  mother-goddess  was  there  called, — 
in  the  hope  that  she  might  save  the  empire  from  im- 
pending disaster.  During  the  most  critical  period  of 
the  struggle  between  Rome  and  Carthage,  the  Mater 
magna y  or  Mater  dea,  made  her  formal  entry  into  the 
capital,  a  temple  was  built  in  her  honour,  and  a 
festival  instituted.  It  was  the  ancient  Semitic  god- 
dess Ishtar,  merely  in  a  different  garb,  who  thus 
celebrated  a  new  triumph  and  an  apotheosis — Ishtar 

*  See  Cumont,  Les  Religions  Orientales  parmi  les  Peuples 
Romains  (Paris,  1908),  chap.  iii. 


142  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  Babylonia  with  an  admixture  of  Hittite  influences, 
transformed  to  meet  changed  conditions,  but  show- 
ing all  the  essential  traits  of  the  original  Semitic 
Ishtar,  the  great  female  principle  in  nature  in  its 
various  phases  as  mother-earth,  as  the  source  of  all 
fertility,  presiding  over  vegetation  and  the  animal 
world,  at  once  the  loving  mother  of  mankind  and  of 
the  gods. 


LECTURE   III 

DIVINATION 


THE  longing  to  penetrate  the  future  is  one  of 
the  active,  impelHng  motives  in  all  religions, 
ancient  and  modern.  The  hourly  needs  of  daily  life, 
combined  with  an  instinctive  dread  of  the  unknown, 
lead  man  to  turn  to  the  Powers,  on  which  he  knows 
himself  dependent,  for  some  signs  which  may  indicate 
what  these  Powers  have  in  mind  to  do.  Divina- 
tion at  one  end  of  the  chain,  and  uplifting  invocation 
at  the  other,  are  prompted  by  the  longing  to  break 
the  fetters,  and  tear  the  veil  from  the  mysterious 
future.  The  chief  function  of  the  priest  is  to  act  as 
mediator  or  interpreter  between  the  deity  and  the 
worshippers  in  order  that  the  latter  may  obtain 
guidance  in  the  affairs  of  daily  life.  Success  in  any 
undertaking  being  dependent  upon  the  co-operation 
of  the  gods,  it  was  all  important  to  ascertain  whether 
or  not  that  co-operation  be  forthcoming.  The  con- 
stant, unforeseen  changes  in  nature,  in  the  varying 
appearance  of  the  heavens,  in  the  unstable  phenomena 

143 


144  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

on  earth,  thus  found  expression  in  man's  associating 
caprice  and  changeability  with  the  arbiters  of  human 
destinies.  One  could  never  be  sure  of  the  mood  of 
the  higher  Powers.  They  smiled  one  day  only  to 
frown  the  next.  It  was,  therefore,  a  matter  of  in- 
calculable practical  importance  to  learn  if  possible 
their  disposition  at  any  given  moment.  The  cult  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria,  accordingly,  revolves  to  a 
large  extent  around  methods  for  divining  the  fut- 
ure, and  we  now  proceed  to  inquire  what  these 
methods  were.  • 

In  any  general  survey  of  the  vast,  almost  boundless, 
field  of  divination,  we  may  distinguish  two  divisions; 
one  we  may  somewhat  vaguely  designate  as  voluntary 
divination,  the  other  as  involuntary  divination.  By 
voluntary  divination  is  meant  an  act  of  deliberately 
seeking  out  some  object  through  which  it  is  hoped  to 
secure  a  sign  indicative  of  future  events.  So,  e.g., 
the  common  practice  among  ancient  Arabs  of  mark- 
ing arrows,  and  then  throwing  them  before  an  image 
or  symbol  of  some  deity,  and  according  to  where 
they  lodged  or  the  side  on  which  they  fell,  to  draw  a 
conclusion  as  to  what  the  deity  had  in  mind  to  do  or 
what  he  desired  of  his  worshippers;  this  would  fall 
within  the  category  of  voluntary  divination.  All 
methods  of  deciding  upon  any  course  of  action  by 
lot  belong  to  the  same  class,  since  the  decision  delib- 
erately sought  would  be  supposed  to  be  an  indication 


Divination  145 

of  the  divine  will.  Sending  forth  birds  and  ob- 
serving their  flight,  as  the  Etmscans  were  accustomed 
to  do,  would  represent  another  means  of  voluntary 
divination,  the  conclusions  drawn  from  the  direction 
and  character  of  the  flight  being  based  upon  a  system 
more  or  less  artifically  devised.  When  the  ancient 
Hebrews  consulted  the  Teraphim,  which  were  prob- 
ably images  or  symbols  of  Jahweh  (or  some  other 
god) ,  they  were  engaged  in  an  act  of  voluntary  divina- 
tion, though  the  details  of  its  method  have  escaped 
us.  Similarly,  the  incident  related  in  the  Book  of 
Samuel,  (I.,  chap,  xx.,)  where  Jonathan  is  portrayed  as 
shooting  arrows  and  announcing  the  result  to  his 
companion  David,  was  in  reality  a  species  of  volun- 
tary divination,  though  no  longer  so  interpreted  by 
the  later  compilers. 

The  field  of  involuntary  divination,  wherein  signs 
indicating  the  purpose  of  the  gods  are  not  sought  but 
forced  upon  our  notice  in  spite  of  ourselves,  is  still 
larger.  The  phenomena  in  the  heavens  constitute 
the  most  conspicuous  example  of  involuntary  divina- 
tion. The  changes  in  the  skies  from  night  to  night 
were  supposed  to  correspond  to  variations  in  the 
dispositions  of  the  gods,  who  were  identified  or  as- 
sociated with  the  planets  and  constellations.  The 
signs  were  there  and  cried  out,  as  it  were,  for  an 
interpretation.  All  unusual  incidents,  whether  in 
nature,  such  as  sudden,  unexpected  storms,  thunder 


146  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

out  of  a  cloudless  sky,  cloud-bursts,  unusually  severe 
inundations,  destructive  tornadoes,  swarms  of  lo- 
custs; or  incidents  in  life  that  for  one  reason  or  an- 
other rivetted  attention,  such  as  dreams,  snakes  in 
the  path,  strange  dogs  of  various  colours,  deformities 
or  monstrosities  in  the  young  of  animals,  malforma- 
tions of  human  offspring,  the  birth  of  twins  and  trip- 
lets, or  a  litter  of  pigs  unusually  large  or  unusually 
small — in  short,  anything  which,  whether  really 
unusual  or  not,  had  any  feature  which  gave  it  pro- 
minence, might  be  a  sign  sent  by  some  god,  and  in  any 
event  demanded  an  interpretation  by  those  who  were 
supposed  to  possess  the  capacity  to  read  in  these 
signs  the  will  and  intention  of  the  higher  Powers. 

Both  voluntary  and  involuntary  divination  have  a 
large  share  in  the  practical  religion  of  Babylonia  and 
Assyria.  As  examples  of  the  former  class  we  find  the 
pouring  of  drops  of  oil  in  a  bowl  or  goblet  of  water, 
and  according  to  the  number  of  bubbles,  the  side 
on  which  the  bubbles  were  formed,  the  behaviour  of 
the  bubbles,  as  they  first  sank  and  then  rose  to  the 
surface,  and  their  line  of  formation,  etc., — from  all 
these,  conclusions  were  drawn  as  to  their  portents. 
In  involuntary  divination  we  find  dreams,  behaviour 
of  animals,  peculiar  signs  in  or  on  new-born  infants,  or 
on  the  young  of  animals,  strange  phenomena  in  daily 
life,  all  carefully  noted  by  the  priests.  These  were 
interpreted  according  to  a  system,  based  in  part  upon 


Divination  147 

observation  of  what  in  the  past  had  actually  followed 
any  striking  occiirrence,  with  the  assumption,  restini^ 
on  the  illogical  principle  of  post  hoc,  propter  hoc,  that 
the  same  circumstances  would  bring  about  a  like  result . 
There  are,  however,  two  methods  of  divination 
among  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  which  take  so 
prominent  a  part  in  their  religion  and  enter  so  closely 
into  it,  as  to  overshadow  all  others.  One  of  these 
methods,  involving  the  inspection  of  the  liver  of  the 
sacrificial  animal,  falls  within  the  category  of  volun- 
tary divination,  the  other,  based  on  the  observation 
and  study  of  the  phenomena  of  the  heavens, — in- 
cluding clouds  and  storms  as  well  as  the  stars, — 
belongs  to  the  category  of  involuntary  divination. 
Of  the  two,  the  former  is  a  direct  outcome  of  popular 
beliefs,  while  the  latter  is  the  result  of  speculation  in 
the  temple  schools.  The  two  methods  therefore  il- 
lustrate the  two  phases  to  be  noted  in  the  religion,  the 
beliefs  and  practice  evolved  among  the  people,  though 
under  the  guidance  of  the  priests  as  the  mediators 
between  the  gods  and  their  worshippers,  and  the  more 
or  less  theoretical  amplifications  of  these  beliefs 
along  lines  of  thought  that  represent  early  attempts 
at  systems  of  theology. 

II 

So  deeply  rooted  is  the  belief  that  through  a  sac- 
rificial animal  a  sign  indicative  of  the  divine  purpose 


148  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

can  be  obtained,  that  the  idea  of  tribute  involved 
in  offering  an  animal  appears,  so  far  as  the  Babylonian 
religion  is  concerned,  to  have  been  of  a  secondary 
character,  if  not  indeed  a  later  addition  to  the  divina- 
tory  aim.  The  theory  upon  which  divination  by  the 
means  of  the  liver  rested  is  both  curious  and  interest- 
ing. It  was  believed  that  the  god  to  whom  an  animal 
was  offered  identified  himself  for  the  nonce  with  the 
proft'ered  gift.  The  god  in  accepting  the  animal  be- 
came, as  it  were,  united  to  it,  in  much  the  same  way 
as  those  who  actually  eat  it.  It  lies  beyond  our  scope 
to  explain  the  origin  of  animal  sacrifice,  but  in  ancient 
religions  the  frequent  association  and  identification 
of  gods  with  animals  suggest  that  the  animal  is 
sanctified  by  the  sacrifice,  acquiring  the  very  at- 
tributes which  were  associated  with  the  god  to  whom 
it  is  offered.  Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  it  seems 
certain  that  in  animal  sacrifice  an  essential  feature  is 
the  belief  that  the  soul  or  spirit  of  the  god  becomes 
identical  with  the  soul  of  the  sacrificial  animal.  The 
two  souls  become  attuned  to  one  another,  like  two 
watches  regiilated  to  keep  the  same  time.  Through 
the  soul  of  the  animal,  therefore,  a  visible  means  was 
obtained  for  studying  the  soul  of  the  god,  thus  enab- 
ling mortals  to  peer,  as  it  were,  into  the  mental  work- 
shop of  the  gods  and  to  surprise  them  at  work,  planning 
future  events  on  earth — which  were  due,  according 
to  the  current  beHef,  to  their  direct  initiative. 


Divination  149 

But  where  was  the  soul  of  the  god?  Using  the 
term  soul  in  the  popularly  accepted  sense,  it  is  not 
surprising  to  find  mankind,  while  in  a  state  of  primi- 
tive culture,  making  the  attempt  to  localise  what  it 
conceived  to  be  the  soul  or  vital  essence  of  an  ani- 
mate being.  Nations,  even  in  an  advanced  state  of 
culture,  speak  in  figurative  language  of  the  heart  or 
brain  as  comprising  the  essence  or  soul  of  being ;  and 
even  after  that  stage  of  mental  development  is  passed, 
where  the  soul  is  sought  for  in  any  specific  hiiman 
organ,  human  speech  still  retains  traces  of  the  ma- 
terial views  once  commonly  associated  with  the  soul. 
A  goodly  part  of  mankind's  mental  and  physical 
efforts  may  be  said  to  be  engrossed  with  this  search 
for  the  human  soul.^ 

In  most  of  the  Aryan  and  Semitic  languages, 
the  word  for  soul  means  "breath,  "  and  rests  upon  the 
notion  that  the  actual  breath,  emitted  through  the 
mouth,  represents  the  real  soul.  This  is  still  a  wide- 
spread popular  belief.  Antecedent  to  this  stage  we 
find  three  organs  of  the  human  body — liver,  heart, 
and  brain — receiving  in  turn  the  honour  of  being 
the  seat  of  the  soul.  This  order  of  enumeration 
represents   the    successive   stages   in   these  simple- 

» The  search  has  lasted  to  our  own  days.  Only  a  few  years 
ago,  the  newspapers  printed  long  and  serious  accounts  of  ex- 
periments made  to  weigh  the  human  soul  by  some  eccentric 
scientist. 


150  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

minded  endeavours.  Among  people  of  to-day  still 
living  in  a  state  of  primitive  culture,  we  find  traces 
of  the  belief  which  places  the  soul  in  the  liver.  The 
natives  of  Borneo  before  entering  on  a  war  are  still 
in  the  habit  of  killing  a  pig,  and  of  inspecting  the  liver 
as  a  means  of  ascertaining  whether  or  not  the  moment 
chosen  for  the  attack  is  propitious;  and,  similarly, 
when  a  chieftain  is  taken  ill,  it  is  believed  that,  through 
the  liver  of  a  pig  offered  to  a  deity,  the  intention  of 
the  god,  as  to  whether  the  victim  of  the  disease 
shall  recover  or  succumb,  will  be  revealed.^ 

The  reason  why  the  liver  should  have  been  selected 
as  the  seat  of  life  is  not  hard  to  discover.  Blood  was, 
naturally,  and  indeed  by  all  peoples,  identified  with 
life;  and  the  liver,  being  a  noticeably  bloody  organ, 
containing  about  one  sixth  of  the  blood  in  the  human 
body,  and  in  the  case  of  some  animals  even  more  than 
one  sixth,  was  not  unnaturally  regarded  as  the  source 
of  the  blood  whence  it  was  distributed  throughout  the 
body.  The  transfer  of  the  locahty  of  the  soul  from 
the  liver  to  the  heart,  and  later  to  the  brain,  follows, 
in  fact,  the  course  of  progress  in  anatomical  know- 
ledge.^ In  the  history  of  medicine  among  the  ancients 
we  find  the  functions  of  the  liver  recognised  earlier 


^  Other  examples  in  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii-,  P- 
214. 

*  See  a  forthcoming  paper  of  the  writer,  "The  Liver  as  the 
Seat  of  the  Soul." 


Divination  151 

than  those  of  the  heart.  When  it  is  borne  in  mind  that 
only  a  few  centuries  have  passed  since  Harvey  defi- 
nitely established  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  it  will 
not  be  surprising  that  for  a  long  time  the  liver  was 
held  to  be  the  seat  of  the  blood  and,  therefore,  of 
life.  The  Babylonians  of  a  later  period  seem  to  have 
attained  to  a  knowledge  of  the  important  part  exerted 
by  the  heart  in  the  human  organism,  as  did  also  the 
Hebrews,  who  advanced  to  the  stage  of  regarding  the 
heart  as  the  seat  of  the  intellect.  The  Babylonian 
language  retains  traces,  however,  of  the  earlier  view. 
We  find  the  word  "liver"  used  in  hymns  and  other 
compositions,  precisely  as  we  use  the  word  "heart," 
though  when  both  terms  are  employed,  the  heart  gener- 
ally precedes  the  liver.  There  are  traces  of  this  usage 
in  Hebrew  poetry,  e.g.,  in  the  Book  of  Lamentations 
(ii.,  11),  where,  to  express  the  grief  of  Jerusalem,  per- 
sonified as  a  mother  robbed  of  her  children,  the  poet 
makes  her  exclaim,  "My  liver  is  poured  out  on  the 
ground,"  to  convey  the  view  that  her  very  life  is 
crushed.  In  Proverbs  vii.,  23,  the  foolish,  young  man 
is  described  as  caught  in  the  net,  spread  by  the  worth- 
less woman,  "like  a  bird  in  trap,"  and  when  he  is 
struck  by  her  arrows  does  not  know  that  it  is  "his 
liver  "  which  is  in  the  hazard.  In  order  to  explain  the 
meaning,  the  text  adds  as  a  synonym  to  "liver"  the 
word  "soul" — a  further  illustration  of  the  synonym- 
ity of  the  two  terms. 


152  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

The  Arabic  language  also  furnishes  traces  of  this 
early  conception  of  the  liver  as  comprising  the  entire 
range  of  soul-life — the  emotions  and  the  intellectual 
functions.  A  tradition,  recording  Mohammed's  grief 
on  hearing  of  the  suspicion  against  the  fidelity 
of  his  favourite  wife,  makes  the  prophet  exclaim, 
"I  cried  for  two  days  and  one  night  until  I  thought 
that  my  liver  would  crack  "^ — precisely  as  we  should 
say , "  I  thought  my  heart  would  break . ' '  Similarly ,  in 
Greek  poetry  (which  reveals  archaic  usage  as  does 
poetry  everywhere,)  the  word  "liver"  is  employed 
where  prose  would  use  "heart,"  when  indicating  the 
essence  of  life.  Theocritus,  in  describing  the  lover 
fatally  wounded  by  the  arrows  of  love,  speaks  of  his 
being  "hit  in  the  liver,"  where  we  should  say  that  he 
was  "struck  to  the  heart";  and  if,  in  the  myth  of 
Prometheus,  the  benefactor  of  mankind  is  punished 
by  having  his  liver  perpetually  renewed  and  eaten  by  a 
vulture,  it  shows  that  the  myth  originated  in  the 
early  period  when  the  liver  was  still  commonly  re- 
garded as  the  seat  of  life.  The  renewal  of  the  liver 
is  the  renewal  of  life,  and  the  tragic  character  of  the 
punishment  consists  in  enduring  the  tortures  of  death 
continually,  and  yet  being  condemned  to  live  for  ever. 
All  this  points  unmistakably  to  the  once  generally 
prevailing  view  which  assigned  to  the  liver  the  pre- 
eminent place  among  the  organs  as  the  seat  of  the  in- 

^  Bokhari  (ed.  Krehl),  ii.,  p.  156. 


Divination  153 

tellect,  of  all  the  emotions — both  the  higher  and  the 
lower, — and  of  the  other  qualities  which  we  commonly 
associate  with  the  soul. 

There  is  no  indication  that  the  Babylonians,  or 
for  that  matter  any  branch  of  the  ancient  Semites, 
reached  the  third  stage  which  placed  the  seat  of  the 
soul  in  the  brain.  This  step,  however,  was  taken  by 
the  school  of  Hippocrates  and  corresponds  to  the  ad- 
vance made  in  anatomical  knowledge,  which  led  to  an 
understanding  of  the  important  function  of  the  brain. 
A  Greek  word  for  "mind,"  phren — surviving  in  many 
modern  terms, such  as  "phrenology,"  etc., — remains, 
however,  as  a  witness  to  the  earlier  view,  since  it 
originally  designated  the  part  of  the  body  below  the 
diaphragm  and  takes  us  back,  therefore,  to  the 
period  when  the  seat  of  the  intellect  and  the  emo- 
tions was  placed  in  the  region  of  the  liver.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  note  that  Aristotle,  while  recognising  the 
important  part  played  by  the  brain,  still  clung  to  the 
second  stage  of  belief  which  placed  the  centre  of 
soul-life  in  the  heart.  He  presents  a  variety  of  in- 
teresting arguments  for  this  view.'     Plato, ^  however, 

I  See  Zeller,  Philosophie  der  Griechen  (3d  edition),  ii.,  2,  p. 
483,  note  4,  where  the  more  important  passages  are  collected, 
illustrative  of  Aristotle's  view  of  the  origin  of  all  sensations 
through  excitations  of  our  sense  organs,  transmitted  to  the 
heart  as  a  centre. 

'Tim(BU5,  §§.  69-71.  See  Jowett's  analysis,  Dialogues  of 
Plato,  vol.  ii.,  p.  503  seq. 


154  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

in  the  generation  before  Aristotle,  adopts  a  compro- 
mise in  order  to  recognise  all  three  organs.  He  as- 
signs one  soul  which  is  immortal  to  the  brain,  which 
together  with  the  heart,  the  seat  of  the  higher  mortal 
soul,  controls  the  intellect  and  gives  rise  to  the  higher 
emotions,  stimulating  men  to  courage,  to  virtue,  and 
to  noble  deeds,  but  he  locates  a  third  or  appetitive 
soul  below  the  diaphragm,  with  the  liver  as  the  con- 
trolling organ,  which  is  the  seat  of  the  passions  and  of 
the  sensual  appetites.  Plato's  view  is  interesting  as 
illustrative  of  the  gradual  decline  which  the  liver  was 
forced  to  endure  in  popular  estimation.  From  being 
the  seat  of  life,  the  centre  of  all  intellectual  functions 
and  of  all  emotions,  it  is  at  first  obliged  to  share  this 
distinction  with  the  heart,  is  then  relegated  to  a  still 
lower  stage  when  the  brain  is  accorded  the  first  place, 
and  finally  sinks  to  the  grade  of  an  inferior  organ, 
and  is  made  the  seat  of  anger,  of  the  passions,  of 
jealousy,  and  even  of  cowardice.  To  call  a  man 
"white-livered"  became  in  Shakespearian  usage  an 
arrant  coward,  whereas  in  Babylonian  speech  it  would 
designate  the  loftiest  praise: — a  man  with  a  "white" 
soul.  The  modern  popular  usage  still  associating  the 
chief  qualities  of  man  with  the  three  organs — brain, 
heart,  and  liver — is  well  expressed  in  the  advertise- 
ment of  an  English  newspaper  which  commends  it- 
self to  its  readers  by  announcing  that  it  is  "all  brain 
and  heart,  but  no  liver." 


Divination  155 

We  must  go  all  the  way  back  to  Babylonian  divina- 
tion to  find  the  liver  enthroned  in  all  its  pristine  glory. 
In  truth  to  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  the  liver 
spelled  life.'  Though  even  popular  thought  moved 
to  some  extent  away  from  the  primitive  view  which 
saw  in  the  liver  the  entire  soul,  still  the  system  of  di- 
vination, perfected  at  a  time  when  the  primitive  view 
was  the  prevailing  one,  retained  its  hold  upon  the 
popular  imagination  down  to  the  latest  period  of 
Babylonian- Assyrian  history;  and  accordingly,  the 
inspection  of  the  liver  of  the  sacrificed  animal,  and 
of  the  liver  alone,  lies  at  the  foundation  of  Baby- 
lonian-Assyrian divination  and  may  be  designated  as 
the  method  of  all  others  for  determining  what  the 
gods  had  in  mind. 

To  recapitulate  the  factors  in  the  theory  underlying 
Babylonian- Assyrian  hepatoscopy — or  liver  divina- 
tion,— the  animal  selected  for  sacrifice  is  identified 
with  the  god  to  whom  it  is  offered.  The  soul  of  the 
animal  is  attuned  to  the  soul  of  the  god,  becomes  one 
with  it.  Therefore,  if  the  signs  on  the  liver  of  the 
sacrificial  animal  can  be  read,  the  mind  of  the  god 
becomes  clear.  To  read  the  deity's  mind  is  to  know 
the  future.  Through  the  liver,  therefore,  we  enter 
the  workshop  of  the  gods,  can  see  them  at  work,  forg- 

'  It  is  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  impossible  that  the  words  life 
and  liver  are  ultimately  connected  (as  German  leih  and  leher 
certainly  are) ,  though  there  are  breaks  in  the  chain  of  etymologi- 
cal evidence  for  the  hypothesis. 


156  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

ing  future  events  and  weaving  the  fabric  of  human 
fortunes.  Strange  as  such  reasoning  may  seem  to  us, 
let  us  remember  that  it  still  appealed  to  the  learned 
and  profound  Plato,  who  in  a  significant  passage^ 
declares  the  liver  to  be  a  mirror  in  which  the  power  of 
thought  is  reflected. 

Ill 

But  how  is  the  liver  to  be  read?  No  one  who  has 
ever  looked  at  a  sheep's  liver — and  it  was  invariably 
a  sheep  that  was  used  in  Baby  Ionian- Assyrian  divina- 
tion— can  fail  to  have  been  struck  by  its  complicated 
appearance.  In  contrast  with  the  heart,  e.g.,  which 
is  not  only  smaller  but  consists  merely  of  a  series  of 
loops  having  no  special  marks  to  attract  attention, 
the  liver  has  many  striking  features.  There  is,  first 
of  all,  the  gall-bladder  which  lies  on  it  and  terminates 
in  a  long  duct,  known  as  the  cystic  duct.  This  duct 
connects  in  turn  with  a  second  duct,  l3dng  across  the 
liver  and  known  as  the  hepatic  duct.  From  this  duct 
smaller  ducts  pass  out  in  various  directions.  Through 
these  subsidiary  ducts,  gall  is  collected  from  various 
parts  of  the  liver.  Passing  into  the  hepatic  duct, 
and  then  through  the  cystic  duct  into  the  gall-bladder, 
it  is  there  purified  and  prepared  for  further  absorption. 
The  lobes  of  the  liver  are  also  of  striking  appearance. 
The  two  lower  ones — one  on  the  right  and  one  on  the 

^  TimcBus,  §.71. 


Divination  157 

left — are  sharply  divided  from  one  another,  and  the 
right  lobe  is  further  separated  into  two  sections  by 
the  groove  in  which  the  gall-bladder  lies.^  The  third 
and  upper  lobe,  known  as  lohus  pyramidalis,^  is 
separated  from  the  lower  lobes  by  a  narrow  depres- 
sion, still  designated  in  modern  anatomical  nomen- 
clature by  a  fanciful  name,  "the  gate  of  the  liver" 
{porta  hepatis).^  Attached  to  this  upper  lobe  are  two 
appendices,  a  smaller  one  on  the  left,  known  as  the 
processus  papillaris,  and  a  larger  one  on  the  right,  hav- 
ing the  shape  of  a  finger  and  known  as  the  processus 
pyramidalis .  At  the  upper  terminus  of  the  liver,  there 
protrudes  the  large  hepatic  vein  (vena  cava)  through 
which  the  blood  from  the  liver  is  carried  to  the  heart. 
To  these  features  must  be  added  the  fissures  on  the 
surface  and  the  markings  which  appear  on  the  livers  of 
freshly  slaughtered  sheep — as  well  as  of  other  animals. 
Varying  with  each  specimen,  they  present,  especially 
in  the  lower  lobes,  the  appearance  of  a  map  with 
cross  lines  and  curves.     These  markings  are,  in  fact, 

^  The  Babylonians,  however,  recognised  only  two  lobes,  the 
lohus  dexter,  called  by  them  the  "right  wing  of  the  liver,"  and  the 
lohus  sinister,  "the  left  wing  of  the  liver."  The  third  lobe  is 
called  in  modem  nomenclature  the  lohus  quadratus. 

^  I  follow  the  nomenclature  proposed  by  Stieda  in  his  article, 
"  Ueber  die  aeltesten  bildlichen  Darstellungen  der  Leber,"  in 
Bonnet  und  Merkel,  Anatomische  Hefte,  Bd.  xv.,  695  seq. 

3  In  the  earlier  anatomical  nomenclature,  the  other  divisions 
of  the  liver  also  have  fanciful  names.  See  Theophilus  Protospath- 
arius,  de  Corporis  humani  Fahrica,  ii.,  13  (ed.  Greenhill),  p.  81. 


15S  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

merely  the  traces  on  the  liver  surface  of  the  subsidiary 
ducts  above  referred  to.  They  gradually  fade  out, 
but  when  the  liver  is  in  a  fresh  state  they  are  striking 
in  appearance.  Not  only  do  these  markings  differ 
in  each  specimen,  but  the  other  features — the  gall- 
bladder, the  various  ducts,  the  lobes  and  appendices 
— are  never  exactly  alike  in  any  two  livers;  they  are 
as  little  alike  as  are  the  leaves  of  a  tree. 

The  field  thus  offered  for  observation  and  careful 
inspection  of  the  liver  of  the  sacrificial  animal  was  an 
extensive  one ;  and  it  was  this  field  that  was  thoroughly 
explored  and  cultivated  by  the  priests  whose  special 
office  it  was  to  divine  the  future  by  means  of  the  liver. 
The  gall-bladder  might  in  one  instance  be  reduced  in 
size,  in  another  abnormally  swollen,  or  it  might  be 
swollen  on  one  side  and  not  on  the  other.  Again,  it 
might  be  firmly  attached  to  the  liver  surface,  or  hang 
loosely  on  it,  or  protrude  beyond  the  liver,  or  not. 
The  cystic  duct  might  be  long  in  some  instances,  and 
short  in  others ;  and  the  same  possible  variations  would 
apply  to  the  hepatic  duct.  The  latter  has  a  wavy  ap- 
pearance and  the  number  and  character  of  these  waves 
dift'er  considerably  in  different  cases.  So  also  the 
shapes  and  sizes  of  the  lobes  are  subject  to  all  kinds  of 
variations;  and  even  more  significant  would  be  the 
varying  character  of  the  two  appendices  attached  to 
the  upper  lobes — the  processus  pyramidalis  and  the 
processus  papillaris.    Finally,  as  has  been  suggested, 


Divination  159 

the  fissures  and  markings  extend  the  scope  of  the  signs 
to  be  noted  almost  indefinitely.  To  all  these  varia- 
tions in  the  case  of  healthy  livers  must  be  added  the 
phenomena  due  to  pathological  conditions.  The  dis- 
eases most  common  to  men  and  animals  in  marshy 
districts  like  the  Euphrates  Valley  primarily  affect 
the  liver.  Liver  diseases  are  said  to  be  particularly 
common  among  sheep ;  the  result  is  that  the  livers  of 
freshly  slaughtered  specimens  exhibit  all  manner  of 
peculiarities,  swellings,  and  contractions  in  the  ducts 
and  lobes  as  well  as  perforations  on  the  liver  surface 
known  as  "liver  flukes,"  due  apparently  to  bacterio- 
logical action.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the 
opportunity  offered  to  the  Babylonian  diviners  for 
developing  an  elaborate  system  of  interpretations  of 
the  signs  to  be  observed  was  a  generous  one.  Hund- 
reds, nay  thousands,  of  fragments  in  Ashurbana- 
pal's  library  bear  witness  to  the  activity  displayed 
by  the  priests  in  embracing  this  opportunity. 

We  have  large  collections  of  tablets  more  or  less 
systematically  arranged  and  grouped  together  into 
series,^  in  which  all  the  possible  variations  in  connec- 
tion with  each  part  of  the  liver  are  noted  and  the  inter- 
pretations given.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  the  gall-bladder, 
among  the  many  signs  enumerated  we  find  such  as 

^  See  below,  p.  179  seg^.,  and  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii., 
p.  210,  note  I,  and  p.  211,  note  i,  for  indications  as  to  the  extent 
of  the  liver  divination  series. 


i6o  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

whether  the  right  or  left  side  was  sunk,  whether  the 
gall-bladder  was  full  of  gall,  whether  there  was  a  fis- 
sure in  the  gall-bladder  running  from  right  to  left  or 
from  left  to  right,  whether  the  fissure  was  long  or 
short.  The  shade  of  the  colour  of  the  gall  was  also 
taken  into  consideration,  whether  greenish  or  whitish 
or  bluish.  For  the  cystic  duct  entries  are  made  in 
case  it  is  long,  reaching  up  to  the  hepatic  duct,  or 
appears  to  be  short.  The  gall-bladder  and  the  cystic 
and  hepatic  ducts — as  also  the  lobes — were  divided 
into  sections — basis,  middle,  and  head — and  accord- 
ing as  peculiar  phenomena  were  observed  in  the  one 
division  or  the  other,  the  interpretation  would  vary. 
Thus,  the  basis,  middle,  or  top  of  the  cystic  duct 
might  be  choked  up  or  sunk  in,  or  choked  up  and 
also  sunk  in,  or  choked  up  and  exhibiting  one  or  more 
fissures.  In  the  case  of  the  hepatic  duct  we  find  en- 
tries noting  whether  it  is  divided  into  two  or  more 
parts,  whether  between  the  divisions  there  are  fissures 
or  markings,  whether  it  contains  a  gall-stone  at  the 
top,  whether  the  duct  appears  raised  or  sunken, 
whether  it  is  swollen,  whether  it  contains  white  or 
dark  fluid,  and  so  ad  infinitum.  Included  in  the  col- 
lections are  long  series  of  observations  on  the  charac- 
ter of  the  depression  between  the  upper  lobe  and  the 
lower  lobes,  whether  it  appears  narrow  on  the  left  or 
on  the  right  side  or  on  both  sides,  whether  it  is  rup- 
tured on  the  right  side  or  left  side,  whether  it  is  bent 


Divination  i6i 

back  "like  a  goat's  horn,"  whether  it  is  hard  and  firm 
on  the  left  or  the  right  side,  whether  it  is  defective  on 
the  one  side  or  the  other,  whether  it  contains  fissures 
"Hke  the  teeth  of  a  saw,"  and  so  on  again  through 
an  ahnost  endless  and  very  monotonous  list  of  signs. 
The  great  vein  of  the  liver  {vena  cava)  is  similarly 
treated,  and  here  much  depends  upon  the  varying 
shape  of  the  vein,  whether  it  is  separated  from  the 
liver,  or  partly  separated,  whether  there  is  a  marking 
above  it  or  below  it  or  whether  it  is  surrounded  by 
markings,  whether  its  colour  is  black  or  green, 
whether  it  contains  fissures,  the  colour  of  the  fis- 
sures, and  the  like.  The  lower  surface  of  the  large 
finger-shaped  appendix  was  fantastically  designated 
as  its  "palace,"  and  note  was  taken  whether  the  top, 
middle,  or  basis  was  torn  away  and  whether  the  rent 
was  on  the  right  or  the  left  side,  or  again  whether  the 
hind  part  of  the  appendix  was  torn,  and  in  what  sec- 
tion,— at  the  top,  middle,  or  at  the  base.  The  rela- 
tionship of  one  part  of  the  liver  to  other  parts  also 
furnished  a  large  number  of  variations  which  were  en- 
tered in  the  collections  of  signs,  and,  lastly,  the  mark- 
ings on  the  liver  were  subjected  to  a  careful  scrutiny 
and  all  kinds  of  variations  registered.  According  to 
their  shape,  they  were  known  as  "weapons,"  "paths," 
or  "feet."  Those  resembling  weapons  were  further 
fantastically  compared  to  the  weapons  that  formed 
symbols  of  the  gods,  while  "paths"  and  "feet,"  as 
iz 


i62  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

will  be  evident,  suggested  all  manner  of  associations 
of  ideas  that  entered  into  the  interpretation  of  the 
signs  noted.  ^ 

The  field  of  observation  being  almost  boundless, 
it  is  evident  that  no  collection  of  signs,  however 
large,  could  exhaust  the  variations  to  be  noted  and  the 
peculiarities  that  every  specimen  afforded.  It  was, 
however,  the  aim  of  the  priests  in  making  these  col- 
lections to  bring  together  in  the  case  of  each  part  of 
the  liver  as  large  a  number  of  signs  as  possible  so 
that,  with  the  interpretations  added,  these  collec- 
tions might  serve  as  handbooks  to  be  consulted  by- 
priests,  entrusted  with  this  branch  of  priestly  service. 
It  is  from  these  collections  of  signs  with  their  inter- 
pretations, that  we  are  able  to  reconstruct  the  system 
of  liver  divination  devised  by  the  uninterrupted  ac- 
tivity of  many  successive  generations  of  priests. 

IV 

The  name  given  to  the  class  of  priests  whose 
special  function  it  was  to  divine  the  future  was  bdru, 
which  means  literally  "inspector."     It  corresponds  to 

^  The  markings  of  the  liver  surface  suggest  a  comparison  with 
the  lines  on  the  hand,  and  the  question  may  be  raised  whether 
palmistry,  still  flourishing  in  our  days,  may  not  be  due  to  a  direct 
transfer  to  the  hand  of  the  significance  attached  in  liver  divina- 
tion to  the  lines  and  cross  Hnes  in  the  liver.  It  is  interesting  to 
observe  that  one  of  the  lines  of  the  hand  is  still  called  in  palmistry 
the  "liver"  line. 


Divination  163 

"seer,"  but  in  the  literal  sense,  as  one  who  "looks"  at 
something.  That  is,  also,  the  original  force  of  our 
term  "seer,"  which  is  a  translation  of  a  Hebrew 
term,^  the  equivalent  of  the  Babylonian  term  bdru, 
denoting,  Hke  the  latter,  the  power  of  divining  through 
an  "inspection"  of  some  kind.  The  bdru,  as  the 
diviner  through  the  liver — the  "inspector"  of  the 
signs  on  the  liver, — is  therefore  the  prototype  of 
the  modern  meat  inspector,  and,  in  passing,  it  may 
be  noted  that  midway  between  the  ancient  and  the 
modern  bdril  we  find  among  the  officials  of  Talmudi- 
cal  or  Rabbinical  Judaism  an  official  inspector  of  the 
organs  of  the  animal  killed  for  food,  whose  duty 
is  to  determine  whether  the  animal  is  ritualistically 
"clean";  upon  this  examination  depended  whether  or 
not  the  meat  could  be  eaten.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  this  rituahstic  inspection  is  merely  a  modification 
of  the  ancient  examination  for  purposes  of  divination, 
just  as  the  hygienic  or  semi-hygienic  aspects  of  the 
dietary  laws  in  the  Pentateuchal  codes  represent  the 
superstructures  erected  on  the  foundations  of  primitive 
"taboos." 

The  high  antiquity  to  which  divination  through 
the  liver  can  be  traced  back  in  the  Euphrates  Valley 
justifies  the  conclusion  that  the  application  of  the 

^  See  an  article  by  the  writer,  "Ro'eh  and  Hozeh  in  the  Old 
Testament, "  in  the  Journal  of  Biblical  Lilerature,  vol.  xxviii.,  pp. 
42-56. 


164  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

term  bdril  to  the  "inspector"  of  the  signs  on  the  liver 
represents  the  oldest  usage,  and  that  the  term  was 
subsequently  employed  to  designate  other  forms  of 
divination,  all  of  which,  however,  involved  the  scrutiny 
and  interpretation  of  signs.  So  he  who  gazed  at  the 
heavens  and  read  the  signs  to  be  noted  there  was  also 
called  a  bdru  and,  similarly,  the  name  was  given  to 
the  priest  who  divined  the  future  through  noting  the 
action  of  drops  of  oil  poured  in  a  basin  of  water,  or 
through  observing  clouds  or  the  flight  of  birds  or  the 
actions  of  animals,  or  who  could  interpret  any  other 
phenomenon  which  because  of  its  unusual  or  strik- 
ing character  aroused  attention.  The  term  bdril 
in  this  way  became  the  general  term  for  "diviner," 
whose  function  it  was  to  interpret  omens  of  all 
kinds. 

In  the  days  of  Gudea  the  phrase  "liver  inspection'* 
had  acquired  the  technical  sense  of  divining  the  future 
whereby  that  ruler  determined  the  favourable  mo- 
ment for  laying  the  foundations  of  a  sacred  edifice  to 
his  god  Ningursu.  Still  earher  than  Gudea,  we  find 
Sargon  and  Naram-Sin  consulting  a  sheep's  liver  be- 
fore starting  on  a  military  expedition,  before  giving 
battle,  on  the  occasion  of  an  internal  revolt,  and  be- 
fore undertaking  building  operations.  The  evidence 
of  the  continuous  employment  of  this  method  of 
divination  is  almost  uninterrupted  down  to  the  end 
of  the  neo-Babylonian  monarchy.     We  have  tablets 


Divination  165 

from  the  period  of  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylon  and 
from  the  Cassite  period,  giving  the  results  of  exam- 
inations of  the  liver  undertaken  by  the  priests  in 
connection  with  some  important  enterprise. »  These 
were  forwarded  to  the  rulers  as  official  reports, 
accompanied  not  infrequently  by  illustrative  draw- 
ings. A  large  number  of  such  reports  have  come 
down  to  us  from  the  Assyrian  period^  which  show  that 
livers  were  consulted  at  the  instance  of  the  kings  before 
treaties  were  made,  before  dispatching  emissaries, 
before  appointing  officials  to  important  posts,  as  well 
as  in  cases  of  illness  of  the  king,  of  the  king's  mother, 
or  of  any  member  of  the  royal  household. 

In  the  course  of  time  there  grew  up  also  in  con- 
nection with  the  inspection  of  Hvers  an  elaborate 
ceremonial.  The  officiating  bdru  had  to  wash  and 
anoint  himself  in  order  to  be  ritually  "pure"  before 
approaching  the  gods.  Special  garments  were  donned 
for  the  ceremony.  A  prayer  was  offered  to  Sha- 
mash,  or  to  Shamash  and  Adad,  who  were  addressed 
as  "lords  of  divination,"  and  in  their  names  the  in- 
spection was  invariably  made.  The  question  to  which 
an  answer  was  desired  was  specifically  stated, — 
whether,  or  not,  within  the  next  one  hundred  days  the 

^  See  examples  in  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  pp. 
297  seq. 

'See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  pp.  285  seq.,  for 
many  specimens. 


i66  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

enemy  would  advance  to  an  attack;  whether  or  not 
the  sick  person  would  recover;  whether  or  not  a 
treaty  should  be  made;  whether  or  not  an  official 
would  be  faithful  to  his  charge,  and  the  like.  The 
sacrificial  sheep  had  to  be  acceptable  to  the  gods  of  the 
divination.  It  must  be  without  blemish,  and  care 
had  to  be  taken  that  in  slaughtering  it  and  in  the  ex- 
amination of  the  liver  no  smallest  misstep  or  error 
whatever  should  be  made,  else  the  entire  rite  would  be 
vitiated.  Prayers  were  offered  for  divine  assistance 
to  avoid  all  such  errors.  Then  the  examination  was 
made,  the  signs  all  noted,  and  the  conclusion  drawn. 
A  single  inspection,  it  would  appear,  was  regarded  as 
conclusive  if  all  the  signs  or  a  majority  of  them  at 
least  were  favourable.  If  all  the  signs  were  unfavour- 
able or  so  considerable  a  number  as  to  leave  doubtful 
the  purpose  and  will  of  the  gods,  a  second  sheep  was 
offered  and  the  entire  ceremony  repeated,  and  if  this, 
too,  proved  unfavourable,  a  third  and  final  attempt 
would  be  made. 

The  last  king  of  Babylonia,  Nabonnedos  (555- 
539  B.C.),  whose  religious  scrupulosity  is  one  of  his 
significant  traits,  shows  how  down  to  the  advent  of 
Cyrus,  the  method  of  ascertaining  the  will  of  the  gods 
employed  by  Sargon  and  Gudea  was  still  commonly 
resorted  to.  The  king  wishes  to  restore  a  temple  to 
the  moon-god  at  Harran  and  to  carry  back  the  images 
of  the  gods  to  their  proper  seats.     In  order  to  ascer- 


Divination  167 

tain  whether  this  is  agreeable  to  Marduk,  the  chief 
deity,  he  consults  the  liver  of  a  sheep  and  gives  us 
the  result  of  the  examination,  which  proved  to  be 
favourable.  On  another  occasion  he  proposes  to 
make  a  certain  symbol^  of  the  sun-god  and  is  anxious 
that  it  should  be  made  in  accordance  with  an  ancient 
pattern.  He  has  a  model  of  the  symbol  made,  places 
it  before  Shamash,  and  consults  a  liver  in  order  to 
ascertain  whether  the  god  approves  of  the  pious  of- 
fering. To  his  surprise  three  times  the  signs  turn 
out  to  be  unfavourable.  The  king  is  dismayed  and 
concludes  that  the  model  was  not  a  correct  reproduc- 
tion of  the  ancient  symbol.  He  has  another  prepared 
and  again  calls  upon  the  bdru  to  make  an  examination 
of  a  liver.  This  time  the  signs,  which  he  furnishes  in 
detail,^  are  favourable.  In  order,  however,  to  make 
assurance  doubly  sure,  possibly  suspecting  his  priests 
of  manipulating  the  observations,  he  tells  us  that  he 
sought  among  the  archives  for  the  result  of  a  liver 
inspection  on  a  former  occasion  when  the  subsequent 
events  proved  the  correctness  of  the  favourable  de- 
cision; then  placing  the  two  series  of  omens  side  by 
side,  he  convinced  himself  that  it  was  safe  to  proceed 
with  the  making  of  the  symbol.  The  evident  sin- 
cerity and  conscientiousness  of  the  king  should  make 

^  Of  exactly  what  nature  we  do  not  know,  since  the  term  used 
to  describe  it,  zarinu,  is  an  otherwise  unknown  word. 
^  See  below,  p.  i88  seq. 


i68  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

us  charitably  inclined  to  his  superstitious  regard  for 
the  primitive  rite,  which,  as  the  official  cult,  had  all 
the  authority  of  a  time-honoured  faith  and  custom. 

Another  indication  of  the  vast  importance  attached 
to  liver  inspection  is  to  be  discovered  in  the  care  with 
which  ancient  records  thereof  were  preserved  and 
handed  down  as  guides  for  later  generations  of  priests. 
In  the  foregoing  enumeration  of  liver  omens,  there  are 
frequent  references  to  the  fact  that  a  particular  sign 
had  been  observed  in  the  consultation  of  a  liver, 
undertaken  on  behalf  of  some  important  personage. 
Thus,  we  are  told  that  a  certain  sign  was  the  one 
noted  at  a  time  when  a  ruler  of  Kish,  known  as 
Urumush,  was  killed  by  his  courtiers  in  an  uprising.* 
Another  sign  is  entered  as  having  been  observed  at  a 
liver  inspection  made  on  behalf  of  Ibe-Sin,  the  last 
king  of  the  Ur  dynasty  (ca.,  2200  B.c.).^  A  number 
of  omens  are  associated  with  Gilgamesh,^  the  semi- 
mythical  hero  of  the  Babylonian  epic,  indicating  that 
underlying  the  myth  there  is  a  basis  of  historical 
tradition.  In  these  associations  Gilgamesh  is  termed 
a  "mighty  king."     Such  references  lead  to  the  con- 


^  The  reference  In  the  text  reads:  "If  the  head  of  the  gall- 
bladder encloses  the  lymphatic  gland  and  is  surrounded  by 
'  weapons '  [i.e.,  markings  on  the  liver] — the  omen  of  Urumush,  the 
king,  whom  the  men  of  his  palace  killed." — Jastrow,  op.  cit.,  p. 
333,  and  below,  p.  184. 

» See  Jastrow,  op.  cit.,  p.  226,  note  3. 

3  Ih.,  p.  226,  note  3. 


Divination  169 

elusion  that,  because  of  the  importance  which  the  tra- 
ditions concerning  significant  personages  assumed,  the 
omens  which  accompanied  certain  events  in  their 
careers  were  embodied  in  the  collections,  and  it  may 
well  be  that  special  collections  of  such  historical 
omens  were  made  by  the  priests. 

We  know  in  fact  of  one  such  collection  of  omens 
referring  to  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin,  extracted  from 
chronicles  of  their  reigns,^  in  which  the  results  of  the 
liver  investigations  made  at  important  epochs  in 
their  career  were  recorded.  These  extracts,  whereof 
we  are  fortunate  enough  to  possess  fragments,  were 
compiled,  not  from  any  historical  motives  but  to 
serve  as  guides  for  the  bdru  priests  and  also  as  school 
exercises  in  training  the  young  aspirants  to  the  priest- 
hood for  their  future  task.  The  collection,  further- 
more, illustrates  an  important  principle  in  the  method 
adopted  for  interpreting  the  signs;  it  was  argued, 
that  if  on  a  certain  occasion,  let  us  say  before  an 
attack  on  the  ancient  enemy,  Elam,  the  gall-bladder, 
the  various  ducts  and  lobes,  and  markings  showed 
certain  features,  and  the  result  of  the  battle  was  a 
victory  for  Sargon,  the  proof  was  furnished  de  facto 
that  these  were  favourable  signs.     On  the  natural 

*  We  have  fragments  of  these  omens  in  a  text  of  Ashur- 
banapal's  library,  and  also  a  duplicate  embodied  in  a  neo- 
Baby Ionian  copy  of  a  chronicle  of  the  reigns  of  Sargon  and 
Naram-Sin.  See  King,  Chronicles  of  Early  Babylonian  Kings, 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  40-45. 


I70  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

though  illogical  principle,  "once  favourable,  always 
favourable,"  it  served  also  in  case  of  a  recurrence 
of  the  signs  to  prognosticate  a  favourable  disposition 
on  the  part  of  the  gods  invoked.  The  significant 
point  was  not  so  much  the  particular  favourable  event 
that  ensued,  but  the  fact  that  it  v^SiS  favourable.  On 
this  same  principle  we  have  as  a  second  fundamental 
canon  in  liver  divination,  "favourable  for  one  purpose, 
favourable  for  any  other."  The  signs  noted  being 
favourable,  the  application  depended  solely  upon  the 
nature  of  the  inquiry  and  the  conditions  suggested  by 
the  inquiry. 

But  while  actual  experience  thus  constituted  an 
important  element  in  the  system  of  interpretation,  one 
can  detect  other  factors  at  work  in  leading  to  favour- 
able or  unfavourable  interpretations  of  a  sign,  or 
group  of  signs.  Among  these  factors  the  association 
of  ideas  stands,  perhaps,  in  the  forefront.  In  common 
with  all  nations  of  antiquity,  the  Babylonians  re- 
garded the  right  side  as  lucky,  and  the  left  as  unlucky. 
Applying  this  to  the  liver,  a  particular  sign  on  the 
right  side  of  the  gall-bladder,  or  of  one  of  the  ducts, 
or  lobes,  or  on  one  of  the  appendices  to  the  upper 
lobe,  was  interpreted  as  referring  to  Babylonia  or  As- 
syria, to  the  king,  or  to  his  army,  or  to  his  household, 
or  to  the  country  in  general;  while  the  same  sign  on 
the  left  side  referred  to  the  enemy.  A  good  sign  on 
the  right  side  was,  therefore,  favourable  to  the  in- 


Divination  171 

quirer;  as  was  also  a  bad  sign  on  the  left,  because  what 
is  unfavourable  to  an  enemy  is  favourable  to  one's 
self.  On  the  other  hand,  a  good  sign  on  the  left  side 
or  a  bad  sign  on  the  right  side  was  just  as  distinctly- 
unfavourable . 

But  the  question  may  here  be  properly  asked — what 
constituted  good  or  bad  signs?  The  natural  as- 
sociation of  ideas  in  many  cases  suggested  an  answer. 
Thus,  e.g.,  the  enlargement  of  any  part  of  the  liver 
was,  by  this  association,  regarded  as  pointing  to  an 
expansion  of  power,  whereas  contraction  would  mean 
a  diminution  thereof.  A  large  gall-bladder  would 
thus  be  a  favourable  symptom,  but  a  distinction  was 
made:  if  the  enlargement  was  on  the  left  side,  the  sign 
would  be  favourable  to  the  enemy,  if  on  the  right  side, 
favourable  to  the  inquirer.  Again,  in  the  case  of  the 
gall-bladder,  the  left  side  is  sometimes  firmly  attached 
to  the  liver  while  the  right  side  hangs  loose,  or  vice 
versa.  The  tight  hold  on  the  liver  indicated  a  firm 
grasp  of  the  enemy.  Hence,  if  the  left  side  was  firmly 
attached,  it  indicated  that  the  enemy  would  be  in 
your  grasp ;  whereas  if  it  was  the  right  side,  the  enemy 
would  hold  you  in  his  grasp,  and  the  sign  would  thus 
be  unfavourable.  This  principle  was  applied  to  other 
parts  of  the  liver,  where  firmness  would  be  associated 
with  strength,  and  with  a  tight  grasp  on  the  enemy, 
while  a  flabby  character  or  loose  adhesion  would  mean 
the  reverse: — weakness  and  disaster.     Here  again, 


172  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

should  the  firmness  or  flabbiness  be  limited  to  one  side, 
the  right  or  the  left  would  be  applied  to  yourself  or 
to  the  enemy  respectively. 

Considerable  attention  was  paid  to  the  shape  and 
appearance  of  the  peculiar  finger-shaped  appendix » 
which  hangs  from  the  upper  lobe,  and  which  was  in 
fact  called  by  the  Babylonians  the  "finger  of  the 
liver." ^  It  has  two  sides,  an  inner,  broad  surface 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  called  the  "palace,"  and 
an  outer  side,  designated  by  the  Babylonian  bdrtl 

'  Processus  pyramidalis.     See  above,  p.  157. 

'It  is  interesting  to  note  in  connection  with  this  "finger  of 
the  Hver"  that  reference  is  made  to  it  no  less  than  ten  times  in 
the  regulations  of  the  Biblical  codes  for  sacrifice  (Exodus  xxix.,  13, 
22;  Leviticus  ii.,  4,  10,  15;  vii.,  4;  viii.,  16,  25;  ix.,  10,  19)  under 
the  designation  of  "that  which  hangs  over  the  liver," — er- 
roneously translated  in  our  Bible  as  the  "caul  above  the  liver." 
The  regulations  provide  that  this  appendix  is  to  be  burned  in  all 
kinds  of  sacrifice,  though  the  rest  of  the  liver  of  the  sacrificial  ani- 
mal may  be  eaten  by  the  priests.  Inasmuch  as  the  Pentateuchal 
codes  abound  in  protests  against  customs  and  rites  prevailing 
among  the  nations  around,  the  ordinance  to  burn  this  part  of  the 
liver  v/as  clearly  intended  as  a  protest  against  using  the  sacrificial 
animal  for  purposes  of  divination,  the  pars  pro  toto  being  re- 
garded as  a  sufficient  reminder.  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German 
ed.),  ii.,  p.  231,  note  10.  In  Rabbinical  literature  this  appendix 
is  Hkewise  termed  the  "finger  of  the  liver" — an  interesting 
trace  of  Babylonian  influence.  The  Greek  translators  of  the 
Pentateuch  correctly  rendered  the  Hebrew  phrase  "that  which 
hangs  over  the  liver"  as  "the  lobe  of  the  liver,"  for  in  Greek 
hepatoscopy  this  processus  pyramidalis  is  actually  thus  desig- 
nated, as  being  the  chief  lobe.  Among  the  Romans  it  was  called 
"the  head  of  the  liver"  {caput  jecoris) — reflecting  likewise  the 
significance  attached  to  this  part  of  the  liver  in  the  divination 
system. 


Divination  173 

priests  as  the  "rear"  side.  By  the  same  association 
of  ideas  which  we  have  already  noted,  a  marking  on 
the  right  side  of  the  "palace"  indicated  that  the 
enemy  would  invade  the  land ;  a  marking  on  the  left 
side  that  the  king's  army  would  invade  the  enemy's 
land.  The  appendix,  Hke  the  gall-bladder,  lobes,  and 
ducts,  being  divided  into  three  sections,  a  marking  at 
the  base  was  regarded  as  favourable  to  the  ques- 
tioner, because  the  base  represented  the  enemy.  A 
marking  at  the  top  was  unfavourable  because,  again 
by  the  association  of  ideas,  the  top  represented  the 
king  or  one's  own  country.  The  relationship  of  the 
larger  appendix  to  the  smaller*  was  also  regarded  as 
important.  In  the  event  of  the  larger  being  abnor- 
mally small  and  the  smaller  abnormally  large,  the 
sign  was  interpreted  as  a  reversal  of  normal 
conditions,  so  that  the  small  would  be  great  and 
the  weak  would  be  strong,  while  the  large  would 
become  small  and  the  strong  become  weak.  Speci- 
fic interpretations  of  such  signs  in  given  in- 
stances are  stated  to  be,  that  the  son  will  be  more 
powerful  than  the  father,  that  the  servant  will  be 
superior  to  the  master,  or  that  the  maid  will  be- 
come the  mistress — possibly  hints  that  domestic 
troubles  are  not  a  modem  invention,  but  that  they 
vexed  the  souls  of  even  Babylonian  housewives, 
and  that  the  servant -girl  question  ascends  to  an 
*  The  processus  papillaris. 


174  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

antiquity  so   remote   as   to   be   time-honoured  and 
respectable. 

This  same  association  of  ideas  was  extended  in 
other  directions,  and  applied  to  the  terms  long  and 
short.  A  long  cystic  or  hepatic  duct  pointed  to  long 
life  or  to  a  long  reign,  a  short  duct  to  a  short  life 
or  to  a  short  reign.  It  has  already  been  pointed 
out  that  the  markings  on  the  liver  were  frequently 
compared  to  weapons.  Indeed  this  comparison 
was  of  all  the  most  frequent,  and,  according  to  the 
shapes  of  the  weapons,  they  were  associated  with 
Ishtar,  Enlil,  Ninib,  Sin,  and  other  deities.'  By  a 
further  extension  of  this  association,  an  Ishtar 
"weapon"  or  marking  was  interpreted  as  indicat- 
ing the  protection  or  the  hostility  of  this  goddess, 
a  Ninib  "weapon"  was  associated  with  its  name- 
sake, and  so  on,  through  the  list.  Thus  the  system 
developed;  and  it  can  be  easily  seen  how  a  few 
basic  phases  of  association  of  ideas  can  be  ex- 
tended to  endless  ramifications.  This  may  be  best 
illustrated  by  a  few  examples. 

V 

The   collection  of    omens    illustrative    of    events 

^Each  of  the  gods  had  his  weapons;  and  on  Boundary  Stones 
such  weapons  are  pictured  as  appropriate  symbols  of  the  gods, 
as,  e.g.,  a  spearhead  for  Marduk,  a  mace  with  a  lion  head  for 
Nergal,  and  the  like.  See  Hinke,  A  New  Boundary  Stone  of 
Nebuchadrezzar  I.  from  Nippur,  pp.  78-87. 


Divination  175 

in  the  reigns  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin   begins   as 
follows^: 

If  the  gall-bladder  spreads  over  the  liver  surface — an  omen 
of  Sargon,  who  on  the  basis  of  this  omen  proceeded  against 
Elam,  subjugated  the  Elamites,  made  an  enclosure  around 
them,  and  cut  off  their  supplies. 

We  must  of  course  assume  that  these  details  represent 
extracts  from  a  chronicle  of  what  actually  happened 
in  the  campaign  against  Elam,  but  arguing  backwards 
from  the  event  to  the  sign,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  the  priests  saw  in  the  extension  of  the  gall- 
bladder the  grounds  for  the  favourable  character 
of  the  sign.  The  picture  of  the  gall-bladder  encom- 
passing the  liver  surface  would  further  suggest  the 
enclosure  around  the  enemy,  shutting  him  in. 
Another  sign  in  this  collection  reads : 

If  the  liver  surface,  exclusive  of  the  gall-bladder  and  the 
"  finger  of  the  liver, "  ^  is  shaped  like  the  lid  of  a  pot,  ^  on  the  right 
side  of  the  liver  a  "weapon"  is  interposed,  and  on  the  left  side 
and  in  front  there  are  seven  fissures — an  omen  of  Sargon.  On 
the  basis  of  this  omen  the  inhabitants  of  the  whole  land  rebelled 
against  him,  encompassed  him  in  Agade,  but  Sargon  went  forth, 
defeated  them,  accomplished  their  overthrow,  humbled  their 
great  host,  captured  them  together  with  their  possessions,  and 
devoted  [the  booty]  to  Ishtar. 

^  Rawlinson  (2d  ed.),  iv.,  PI.  34,  Nr.  i.    For  a  complete  trans- 
lation see  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  pp.  227-244. 
^  I.e.,  excluding  these  from  consideration. 
3  I.e.,  curved  and  smooth. 


176  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

In  this  case  it  is  evident  that  the  seven  fissures — 
seven  being  a  large  round  number — suggested  a  gen- 
eral disruption  of  the  empire ;  but  a  marking  associated 
with  a  weapon  being  interposed  on  the  right  side  would 
naturally  be  regarded  as  pointing  to  a  successful 
check  of  the  uprising,  while  the  circumstance  of  the 
liver  being  otherwise  well-rounded  and  smooth  was 
regarded  as  a  sign  of  the  ultimate  disappearance  of  the 
difficulties  with  which  Sargon  found  himself  encum- 
bered. The  chief  import,  however,  of  the  omen,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind,  is  that  the  subsequent  events 
proved  the  signs  in  question  to  have  been  favourable; 
but  at  the  same  time  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  priests, 
as  is  suggested  above,  in  compiling,  from  the  official 
chronicles,  a  series  of  omens  dating  from  the  reigns  of 
Sargon  and  Naram-Sin,  to  preserve  them  as  a  guide 
for  the  future.  The  great  name  of  King  Sargon, 
whose  fame  as  a  successful  conqueror  gave  rise  to 
legends  of  his  birth  and  origin,  was  assuredly  one  to 
conjure  with.  If  on  any  occasion  the  examination  of 
a  liver  revealed  a  "Sargon"  sign,  there  could  be  no 
mistaking  its  import.  Events  showed  what  it  meant 
and  signs  given  to  the  great  king — the  favourite  of 
the  gods — would,  necessarily,  be  trustworthy  guides. 
These  two  factors,  records, — or  recollections  of 
events  following  upon  signs  observed  on  specific  oc- 
casions, and  a  natural,  or  artificial,  association  of 
ideas, — control  the  large  collections  of  "liver"  omens, 


Divination  177 

which  in  the  course  of  time  were  stored  in  the  temples 
through  the  activity  of  priests.  With  the  help  of 
these  collections,  as  guides  and  reference-books,  all 
that  was  necessary  was  to  observe  every  possible 
sign  on  the  liver;  note  them  down;  refer  them  to  the 
collection  which  would  furnish  the  favourable  or  un- 
favourable interpretation;  register  these  interpreta- 
tions; and  then,  from  a  complete  survey,  draw  a 
conclusion,  if  haply  one  could  be  formed. 

The  interpretations  themselves  in  these  collec- 
tions relate,  almost  exclusively,  to  the  general  wel- 
fare and  not  to  individual  needs  or  desires.  They 
refer  to  warfare;  to  victory  or  defeat;  to  uprisings 
and  devastations,  pestilence  and  crops.  Individuals 
are  not  infrequently  referred  to,  but  the  reference  is 
limited  to  the  ruler  or  to  members  of  his  household, 
under  the  ancient  view  taken  of  royalty,^  that 
what  happens  to  the  king  and  his  household  affects 
the  fortunes  of  the  country  for  good  or  evil. 
This,  of  itself,  does  not  exclude  the  possibility  that 
private  individuals  consulted  the  bdru  priests,  and 
had  liver  examinations  made  on  their  own  behalf. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  our  material  consists  of 
official  records ;  but  it  may  be  said  in  general  that  the 
gods  were  supposed  to  concern  themselves  with  public 
affairs  only,  and  not  with  the  needs  of  individuals. 

^  See  Frazer,  Lectures  on  the  Early  History  of  Kingship — 
especially  Lecture  IV. 


178  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

This  is  in  keeping  with  what  we  know  generally  of 
Babylonian- Assyrian  culture,  which  reveals  the  weak- 
ness of  the  factor  of  individualism.  The  country  and 
the  community  were  all  in  all ;  the  individual  counted 
for  little,  in  striking  contrast,  e.g.,  to  Greek  cul- 
ture, where  the  individual  almost  overshadows  the 
community.  The  circumstance  that,  in  the  large 
collections  of  omens,  the  interpretations  deal  with 
affairs  of  public  and  general  import,  thus  turns  out 
to  be  significant ;  and  while,  as  we  have  seen,  the  impor- 
tant feature  for  those  who  resorted  to  divination  was 
merely  to  ascertain  whether  the  interpretation  was 
favourable  or  unfavourable,  the  interpretations 
themselves  in  the  collections  are  always  explicit  in 
referring  to  a  specific  prognostication  as  favourable, 
or  unfavourable. 

The  attempt  to  follow  in  detail  the  association  of 
ideas  which  led  to  each  specific  interpretation  would 
be  a  hopeless  and  also  a  futile  task.  We  may  well 
content  ourselves  with  a  recognition  of  the  main  fac- 
tors involved  in  this  association  of  ideas  as  above  out- 
lined. Thus,  we  can  understand  that  a  fissure  on  the 
right  side  of  the  gall-bladder  should  point  to  some 
disaster  for  the  army,  and  a  fissure  on  the  left  to  dis- 
aster for  the  enemy's  army;  or  that  a  fissure  on  both 
right  and  left  should  prognosticate  general  defec- 
tion; but  v/hy,  where  there  are  two  ruptures  at  the 
point  of  the  gall-bladder,  a  short  one  on  the  right 


Divination  179 

side  should  indicate  that  the  enemy  will  destroy  the 
produce  of  the  land,  but  if  the  left  one  is  short  the 
enemy's  produce  will  be  destroyed,  is  not  apparent, 
except  on  the  basis  of  a  most  artificial  association  of 
ideas.  We  can  understand  why  a  double-waved 
hepatic  duct,  with  the  upper  part  defective,  should 
point  to  a  destruction  of  the  king  (the  upper  part  re- 
presenting, like  the  right  side,  the  king  and  his  army), 
and  why,  if  the  lower  part  is  defective,  the  enemy's 
army  will  be  destroyed  (the  lower  part,  like  the  left 
side,  representing  the  enemy) ;  but  any  ordinary  as- 
sociation of  ideas  fails  to  account  for  the  prediction 
that  a  rupture  between  the  two  waves  of  the  duct 
means  specifically  that  a  pestilence  will  rage,  or  that 
there  will  be  an  inundation  and  universal  devasta- 
tion. It  seems  reasonable  to  assume  that  many  of 
these  specific  deductions  rest,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
genuinely  historical  omens,  upon  actual  experience, 
that  on  a  certain  occasion,  when  the  sign  in  question 
was  observed  at  a  liver  inspection,  a  pestilence  fol- 
lowed, or  an  inundation,  accompanied  by  great  de- 
struction, took  place.  The  priests  would  naturally 
take  note  of  all  events  of  an  unusual  character  which 
followed  upon  any  examination,  and  record  them  in 
connection  with  the  sign  or  signs ;  and  it  is  easy  to  see 
how,  in  the  course  of  time,  an  extensive  series  of  such 
specific  interpretations  would  have  been  gathered, 
resting  not  upon  any  association  of  ideas  between  a 


i8o  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

sign  and  a  prognostication,  but  upon  the  rule  of 
post  hoc,  proper  hoc.  In  such  cases,  the  guidance 
for  the  priests  would  be  restricted,  just  as  in  the  case 
of  historical  omens,  to  an  indication  whether  the 
interpretation  was  favourable  or  unfavourable.  If 
favourable,  the  repetition  of  the  sign  would  likewise 
be  favourable  and  could  apply  to  any  situation  or 
to  any  inquiry,  quite  irrespective  of  the  specific  in- 
terpretation entered  in  the  collections.  The  scope 
would  be  still  further  enlarged  by  logical  deductions 
made  from  an  actual  record  of  what  happened  after 
the  appearance  of  a  certain  sign  or  series  of  signs 
observed  on  a  single  former  occasion.  Thus,  if  a 
specific  sign  on  the  right  side  of  a  part  of  the  liver  was^ 
as  a  favourable  symptom,  followed  by  good  crops,  it 
was  possible  to  add  an  entry  that  if  the  same  sign 
occurred  on  the  left  side,  it  would  point  to  bad  crops. 

In  all  these  various  ways,  and  in  others  that  need 
not  be  indicated,  the  collections  would,  in  the  course  of 
ages,  grow  to  colossal  proportions.  Each  important 
temple  would  collect  its  own  series,  and  the  ambition  of 
the  priests  would  be  to  make  these  series  as  complete 
as  possible,  so  as  to  provide  for  every  possible  con- 
tingency. A  table  of  contents  which  we  fortunately 
possess,'  of  two  such  series  of  omen  collections,  en- 
ables us  to  estimate  their  size.  The  tables  fiunish 
the  opening  lines  of  each  of  the  fourteen  and  seven- 

^  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  Part  XX.,     Plate  i. 


PL  20.  Fig.  I.  Drawing  of  Sheep's  Liver,  giving  the  Latin  terms  of  the 
chief  parts  of  the  liver,  with  their  Babylonian  equivalents,  so  far 
as  determined,  together  with  the  Babylonian  terms  for  the  various 
markings  on  the  liver. 
Fig.  2.  Omen  school  Tablet  from  Ashurbanapal's  Library,  show- 
ing the  finger-shaped  appendix  {processus  pyramidalis)  attached 
to  the  upper  lobe  of  the  liver.  See  Boissier,  Documents  Assyriens 
relatifs  aux  Presages,  pp.  36-40  and  Illustration  facing  p.  188. 


KablttulLlvei 
<V^=BA=  Panto  (Liver  surface) 


I,  ti-'^ 


c^arw 


(D)>^<  f«<^<  A^  P^^  .  w  *MOje    IKJ   x^uporae  t^.KKL tc-tAnpu 

iaimitahttu  ^ear* /<«<»▼  ^  cm  tm  =  naf/Wft; 

Fig.  I.     Drawing  of  Sheep's  Liver 
with  Latin  and  Babylonian 
Terms  for  Chief  Parts 


Fig.  2.  Omen  School — Tablet 
from  Ashurbanapal's  Library, 
showing  Finger-shaped  Ap- 
pendix to  Upper  Lobe  of  Liver 


Divination  i8i 

teen  tablets  of  which  the  series  respectively  consisted. 
In  one  case  the  number  of  lines  on  each  tablet  is  also 
indicated,  from  which  we  may  gather  that  the  series 
consisted  of  about  fifteen  hundred  lines,  and,  since 
each  line  contained  some  sign  noted  together  with 
the  interpretation,  it  follows  that  we  have  not  less 
than  fifteen  hundred  different  signs  in  this  one  series. 
Considering  that  we  have  remains,  or  references,  to 
over  a  dozen  series  of  these  liver  omens  in  the  pre- 
served portions  of  Ashurbanapal's  library,  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  the  recorded  signs  and  interpretations 
mount  high  into  the  thousands.  A  few  specimens 
from  these  collections  will  suffice  to  illustrate  their 
character^: 

If  the  cystic  duct  is  long,  the  days  of  the  ruler  will  be  long. 

If  the  cystic  duct  is  long,  and  in  the  middle  there  is  an  extended 
subsidiary  duct,  the  days  of  the  ruler  will  soon  end. 

If  the  base  of  cystic  duct  is  long,  and  there  is  a  fissure  on  the 
right  side,  the  enemy  will  maintain  his  demand  against  the  ruler, 
or  the  enemy  will  bring  glory  from  out  of  the  land.^ 

If  the  base  of  the  cystic  duct  is  long,  and  there  is  a  fissure  on 
the  left  side,  the  ruler  will  maintain  his  demand  against  the 
enemy,  or  my  army  will  bring  glory  out  of  the  enemy's  land. 

If  the  base  of  the  cystic  duct  is  long,  lying  to  the  right  of  the 
hepatic  duct,  the  gods  will  come  to  the  aid  of  the  enemy's  army, 
the  enemy  will  kill  me  in  warfare. 

If  the  base  of  the  cystic  duct  is  long,  lying  to  the  left  of  the 
hepatic  duct,  the  gods  will  come  to  the  aid  of  my  army,  and  I 
shall  kill  the  enemy  in  warfare. 

^  Boissier,  Choix  des  Textes  relatifs  a  la  Divination,  p.  40.     See 
Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  p.  329. 
'  I.e.,  out  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 


1 82  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

In  the  same  way  we  have  a  long  series  of  omens  de- 
tailing the  various  possibilities  in  connection  with 
fissures  in  the  gall-bladder^: 

If  the  gall-bladder  is  split  from  right  to  left,  and  the  split 
portion  hangs  loose,  thy  power  will  vanquish  the  approaching 
enemy. 

If  the  gall-bladder  is  split  from  left  to  right,  and  the  split  por- 
tion hangs  loose,  the  weapon  of  the  enemy  will  prevail. 

If  the  gall-bladder  is  spHt  from  right  to  left,  and  the  spHt  por- 
tion is  firm,  thine  army  will  not  prevail  in  spite  of  its  power. 

If  the  gall-bladder  is  split  from  left  to  right,  and  the  split  por- 
tion is  firm,  the  enemy's  army  will  not  prevail,  in  spite  of  its 
power. 

If  the  gall-bladder  is  split  from  right  to  left,  and  there  is  a 
gallstone  at  the  top  of  the  fissure,  thy  general  will  capture  the 
enemy. 

If  the  gall-bladder  is  split  from  left  to  right,  and  there  is  a 
gallstone  at  the  top  of  the  fissure,  the  general  of  the  enemy  will 
capture  thee. 

Among  the  many  signs  noted  in  the  case  of  the  hepatic 
duct  in  the  collection,  we  find  the  following^: 

If  the  hepatic  duct  is  twofold  3,  and  between  the  two  parts 
there  is  a  marking,''  Nergals  will  rage,  Adad"^  will  cause  overflow, 
Enlil's  word  will  cause  general  destruction. 

If  the  hepatic  duct  is  twofold,  and  between  the  two  parts  there  is 

^  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  p.  335. 

2  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  Part  XX.,  Plate  3.  See  for  a  complete 
translation  of  this  text,  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  p. 
341  seq. 

3  I.e.,  consists  of  two  waves  or  two  layers. 

4  I.e.,  trace  on  the  surface  of  a  subsidiary  duct, 
s  God  of  pestilence.     See  above  p.  107. 
^God  of  storms.     See  above  p.  117. 


Divination  183 

a  "weapon" S  visible  above,'  the  enemy  will  advance  and  destroy 
my  army. 

If  the  hepatic  duct  is  twofold,  and  between  the  two  parts  there 
is  a  "weapon,"  visible  below, 3  my  army  will  advance  and  de- 
stroy the  enemy. 

If  the  hepatic  duct  is  twofold,  and  between  the  two  parts 
there  is  a  "weapon,"  visible  on  the  right  side,-*  march  of  the 
enemy's  army  against  the  land. 

If  the  hepatic  duct  is  doubled,  and  between  the  two  parts 
there  is  a  "  weapon, "  visible  on  the  left  side,  march  of  my  army 
against  the  enemy's  land. 

Out  of  an  even  larger  number  of  symptoms^  associated 
with  the  depression  between  the  upper  and  the  lower 
lobes,  known  as  "the  liver-gate,"  a  few  extracts  will 
suffice : 

If  the  liver-gate  Is  long  on  the  right  side  and  short  on  the  left, 
joy  of  my  army. 

If  the  hver-gate  is  long  on  the  left  side  and  short  on  the  right, 
joy  of  the  enemy's  army. 

If  the  liver-gate  is  crushed  on  the  right  side  and  torn  away,^ 
the  ruler's  army  will  be  in  terror. 

If  the  liver-gate  is  crushed  on  the  left  side  and  torn  away, 
the  enemy's  army  will  be  in  terror. 

If  the  liver-gate  is  torn  away  on  the  right  side,  thine  army  will 
go  into  captivity. 

If  the  liver-gate  is  torn  away  on  the  left  side,  the  enemy's  army 
will  go  into  captivity. 

*  A  marking  compared  to  a  weapon.     See  above  p.  174. 
'  Upper  part  =  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 

3  Lower  part  =  enemy. 

4  Right  side  =  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 

s  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  Part  XX.,  Plate  31-35.     No  less  than 
one  hundred  and  fourteen  different  signs  are  registered. 
^  I.e.,  defective. 


184  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

If,  in  the  curvature^  of  the  liver-gate,  there  are  fissures  to  the 
right  of  the  hepatic  duct,  the  enemy  will  advance  to  my  dwelling- 
place. 

If,  in  the  curvature  of  the  liver-gate,  there  are  fissures  to  the 
left  of  the  hepatic  duct,  I  will  advance  against  the  enemy's 
army. 

If,  in  the  curvature  of  the  liver-gate,  there  is  one  fissure  to  the 
right  of  the  hepatic  duct,  thine  army  will  not  prevail,  despite  its 
power. 

If,  in  the  curvature  of  the  liver-gate,  there  is  one  fissure  to 
the  left  of  the  hepatic  duct,  the  enemy's  army  will  not  prevail, 
despite  its  power. 

Similarly,  two  fissures  mean  "captivity,"  three 
fissures  "enclosure,"  and  four  fissures  "devastation" 
— applying  to  the  enemy  or  to  the  king's  side  accord- 
ing to  the  appearance  of  the  fissures  to  the  right  or  to 
the  left  of  the  hepatic  duct.  Lastly,  a  brief  extract 
from  a  text  dealing  with  symptoms  connected  with 
the  finger  shaped  appendix^: 

If  the  finger  is  shaped  like  a  crescent,  the  omen  of  Urumush, 
the  king  whom  his  servants  put  to  death  in  his  palace.  ^ 

If  the  finger  is  shaped  Hke  a  lion's  head,  the  servants  of  the 
ruler  will  oppose  him. 

If  the  finger  is  shaped  like  a  lion's  ear,  the  ruler  will  be  with- 
out a  rival. 

If  the  finger  is  shaped  like  a  lion's  ear,  and  split  at  the  top,  the 
gods  will  desert  thy  army  at  the  boundary.  ^ 

^  I.e.,  the  deep  part  of  the  depression. 

^  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  p.  392  seq. 

3  A  specimen  of  an  historical  omen.  See  above  p.  168.  Uru- 
mush was  one  of  the  early  rulers  of  the  district  of  which  Kish 
was  the  centre  and  capital. 

^  I.e.,  the  gods  will  not  march  with  the  army  into  foreign 
territory. 


Divination  185 

If  the  finger  is  shaped  like  an  ox's  tongue,  the  generals  of  the 
ruler  will  be  rebellious. 

If  the  finger  is  shaped  like  a  sheep's  head,  the  ruler  will  ex- 
ercise power. 

If  half  of  the  finger  is  formed  like  a  goat's  horn,  the  ruler  will 
be  enraged  against  his  land. 

If  half  of  the  finger  is  formed  like  a  goat's  horn,  and  the  top 
of  it^  is  split,  a  man's  protecting  spirit  will  leave  him. 

If  the  finger  is  shaped  like  a  dog's  tongue,  a  god^  will  destroy. 

If  the  finger  is  shaped  like  a  serpent's  head,  the  ruler  will  be 
without  a  rival. 

In  the  official  reports  of  liver  examinations  for- 
warded to  the  rulers,  and  at  times  embodied  in  their 
annals,  all  the  signs,  as  observed,  were  recorded,  and 
the  interpretations  added  as  quotations  from  these 
omen  collections.  It  thus  happened  that,  in  many- 
cases,  these  interpretations  had  no  direct  bearing  on 
the  character  of  the  inquiry,  but  the  interpretation 
showed  whether  or  not  the  sign  was  favourable, 
which  was  the  chief  concern  of  both  priests  and 
applicants.  On  the  basis  of  the  extracts,  therefore,  a 
decision  was  rendered,  and  often  a  summary  given  at 
the  end  of  the  reports,  indicating  the  number  of 
favourable  and  unfavourable  signs. 

The  number  of  signs  recorded  on  the  liver  varied 
considerably.  Every  part  of  the  liver  was  scru- 
tinised, but  frequently  no  special  marks  were  found 

^  I.e.,  of  the  "finger." 

2  Throughout  the  omen  texts,  "god"  without  further  quahfi- 
cation  means  Nergal,  the  god  of  destruction,  warfare,  pestilence, 
and  death. 


1 86  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

on  one  part  or  the  other.  The  minimum,  however,  of 
signs  recorded,  in  any  known  instance,  appears  to 
have  been  ten,  and  from  this  number  upward  we 
have  as  many  as  fifteen  and  even  twenty  variations. 
To  give  an  example  from  the  days  of  the  Assyrian 
empire,  we  find,  in  response  to  a  question  put  to 
a  bdru  priest  whether  or  not  an  uprising  that  had 
taken  place  would  be  successful,  the  following  report 
of  the  results  of  the  examination  of  the  liver  of  a 
sacrificial  sheep  ^: 

The  cystic  duct  is  normal;  the  hepatic  duct  double,  and  if  the 
left  part  of  the  hepatic  duct  lies  over  the  right  part  of  the  hepatic 
duct,  the  weapons  of  the  enemy  will  prevail  over  the  weapons  of 
the  riiler. 

The  hepatic  vein  is  not  normal — this  means  siege. 

There  is  a  depression  to  the  right  of  the  cystic  duct^ — over- 
throw of  my  army. 

The  left  side  of  the  gall-bladder  is  firm,  through  thee,  3 — 
conquest  of  the  enemy.  The  "finger"  and  the  papillary  ap- 
pendix-»  are  normal. 

The  lower  part  of  the  livers  to  the  right  is  crushed — the  leader 
will  be  crushed,  or  there  will  be  confusion  in  my  army.^ 

The  upper  part  is  loose. 

The  curvature  over  the  lower  points  is  swollen,  and  the  basis 
of  the  upper  lobe  is  loose. 

^  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  pp.  288-290. 
^  An  explanatory  note  adds  "The  hepatic  duct  is  choked  up 
and  closed." 

3  The  address  is  to  the  king  or  to  the  inquirer. 

4  The  small  processus  at  the  other  end  of  the  upper  lobe.  See 
above,  p.  157. 

s  I.e.,  the  lower  part  of  the  "finger." 

*  An  alternative  interpretation  of  the  "finger." 

7  Of  the  "finger"  likewise. 


Divination  187 

The  liver  "  fluke  "^  is  destroyed,  the  network  of  the  markings 
consists  of  fourteen  [meshes],  the  inner  parts  of  the  sheep  are 
otherwise  normal. 

The  "inspector"  then  adds  as  a  summary  that 
five  of  the  signs  are  unfavourable,  specifying  the  five 
he  has  in  mind,  and  closes  with  the  decision  "it  is  un- 
favourable." The  examination  thus  showed  that 
the  gods  v/ere  not  favourable  to  the  king's  natural  de- 
sire to  quell  the  rebellion,  and  that  more  trouble  was 
to  be  expected. 

As  a  second  example  of  the  recorded  result  of  a 
liver  examination  let  us  take  a  report  incorporated  by 
king  Nabonnedos  in  his  annals,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
consulting  the  priests  in  order  to  ascertain  whether 
or  not  the  deities  approved  of  the  king's  purpose  to 
make  a  symbol  of  the  sun-god  as  a  pious  ofiering.^ 
The  first  result,  though  favourable,  did  not  quite 
satisfy  the  king;  it  showed  the  following  signs,  to- 
gether with  the  interpretations  as  furnished  by  the 
omen  collections^: 

The  cystic  duct  is  long — the  days  of  the  ruler  will  be  long. 

The  compass  of  the  hepatic  duct  is  short — the  path  of  man 
will  be  protected  by  his  godi^  god  will  furnish  nourishment  to 
man,  or  waters  will  be  increased,  s 

^  See  above,  p.  159.  ^  See  above,  p.  167,  note  i. 

3  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  p.  252  seq. 

4  I.e.,  by  the  protecting  demon  which,  according  to  Baby- 
lonian views,  accompanies  the  individual,  unless  driven  off  by  a 
more  powerful  evil  demon. 

s  Alternative  interpretation. 


1 88  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

The  lymphatic  gland  is  normal — good  luck. 

The  lower  part  of  the  gall-bladder  is  firm  on  the  right  side, 
torn  off  on  the  left — the  position  of  my  army  will  be  strong,  the 
position  of  the  enemy's  army  endangered.  The  gall-bladder  is 
crushed  on  the  left  side — the  army  of  the  enemy  will  be  annihil- 
ated, the  army  of  the  ruler  will  gain  in  power. 

The  "finger"  is  well  preserved — things  will  go  well  for  the 
sacrificerS  and  he  will  enjoy  a  long  life. 

The  papillary  appendix  is  broad — happiness. 

The  upper  surface'  wobbles 3 — subjection,  the  man  will  pre- 
vail in  court  against  his  opponent. 

The  lower  part  of  the  "finger"  is  loose — my  army  will  gain 
in  power. 

The  network  of  markings  consists  of  fourteen  well  developed 
meshes — my  hands  will  prevail  in  the  midst  of  my  powerful 
army. 

Although,  for  reasons  indicated,  the  interpretations 
have  no  bearing  whatsoever  on  the  inquiry,  they  are 
all  favourable,  and  the  king  might  have  been  satis- 
fied with  the  result.  In  order,  however,  to  remove  all 
possible  doubt  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  conclusions, 
he  selected  from  the  archives  a  series  of  signs,  noted 
on  a  former  occasion,  when  the  subsequent  events 
proved  that  the  signs  were  favourable,  and  compared 
the  two  lists.     This  second  series  reads  as  follows: 

The  cystic  duct  is  long, — the  days  of  the  ruler  will  be  long. 
The  hepatic  duct  is  double  on  the  right, — the  gods  will  assist. 
The  lymphatic  gland  is  well  formed,  the  lower  part  firm — 
peaceful  habitations. 

The  hepatic  duct  is  bent  to  the  right  of  the  gall-bladder,  the 

*  I.e.,  the  king  or  the  inquirer  in  general. 

"  Sc.  of  the  "finger." 

3  Moves  freely  to  and  fro. 


Divination  189 

gall-bladder  Itself  normal — the  army  will  be  successful  and  return 
in  safety. 

The  gall-bladder  is  long, — the  days  of  the  ruler  will  be  long. 

The  left  side  of  the  gall-bladder  is  firm, — through  thee,  de- 
struction of  the  enemy. 

There  is  a  "weapon"  in  the  middle  of  the  back  surface  of  the 
"finger"  with  downward  curve, ^ — the  weapon  of  Ishtar  will 
grant  me  security,  the  attack  of  the  enemy  will  be  repulsed.' 

The  upper  part  of  the  hind  surface  of  the  livers  protrudes  to 
the  right,  and  a  liver  fluke  has  bored  its  way  into  the  middle, — 
the  protector  of  my  lord  will  overthrow  the  army  of  the  enemy 
by  his  power.  The  lower  points  rides  over  the  ditch s, — the  pro- 
tection of  (his)  god*  will  be  over  the  man.  The  angry  god  will 
become  reconciled  with  man. 

The  signs  recorded  in  the  two  series  are  not  the 
same  throughout,  but  there  are  enough  points  of 
agreement  to  reassure  the  king  that  the  decision  of 
the  priests  in  the  case  of  the  first  series  was  correct; 
and,  what  is  equally  to  the  point,  there  are  no  signs 
and  interpretations  in  the  second  series  that  contra- 

*  I.e.f  the  marking,  compared  to  a  weapon,  curves  as  it  runs 
along.  The  shape  suggests  a  comparison  with  the  weapon  of 
the  goddess  Ishtar  (above  p.  174).     Hence  the  interpretation. 

'  An  explanatory  note  adds  that  the  name  of  the  weapon  is 
"  conqueror  " — a  designation  actually  given  to  one  of  the  weapons 
of  Marduk,  the  consort  of  Ishtar.  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (Ger- 
man ed.),  ii.,  p.  261,  note  10. 

3  Though  the  term  "liver"  is  used,  it  is  the  "finger"  of  the 
liver  that  is  meant. 

4  Of  the  "finger." 

s  The  depression  separating  the  processus  pyramidalis  from 
the  lower  right  lobe  is  meant — which  is  pictured  as  a  ditch. 
The  "finger"  of  the  liver  is  often  curved,  and  lies  across  this 
depression. 

^  I.e.,  the  protecting  demon  as  above,  p.  187,  note  4. 


I90  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

diet  the  first.  The  king,  no  doubt,  was  anxious  to 
have  the  judgment  of  his  "inspector"  confirmed,  and 
rested  content,  therefore,  with  a  proof  that  might 
possibly  not  have  appealed  to  a  spirit  more  critically 
disposed. 

VI 

Childish  as  all  these  superstitious  rites  may  appear 
to  us,  hepatoscopy  had  at  least  one  important  re- 
sult in  Babylonia.  It  led  to  a  genuine  study  of  the 
anatomy  of  the  liver;  and  in  view  of  the  antiquity 
to  which  the  observation  and  nomenclature  of  the 
various  parts  of  the  liver  may  be  traced,  there  can 
be  small  doubt  that  to  the  bdru  priests  belongs  the 
credit  of  having  originated  the  study  of  anatomy^; 
just  as  their  associates,  the  astrologers  of  Babylonia, 
also  known  as  bdru,  i.e.,  "inspectors,"  of  the  heavens, 
laid  the  elementary  foundations  of  astronomy,  though, 
as  we  shall  see,  astronomy  worthy  of  the  name  did 
not  develop  in  the  Euphrates  Valley  until  a  very  late 
period. 

In  another  respect  the  study  of  the  Hver  divination 
in  Babylonia  and  Assyria  is  fraught  with  significance. 
Through  it,  a  definite  link  is  established  between  the 
ancient  civilisations  of  the  East  and  those  of  the  West. 

^  See  a  paper  by  the  present  writer,  "The  Liver  in  Antiquity 
and  the  Beginnings  of  Anatomy,"  in  the  Transactions  oj  the 
College  of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia,  vol.  xxix.,  pp.  1 17-138. 


PI.  21.     Fig.  I.     Clay  Model  of  Sheep's  Liver. 

Now  in  the  British  Museum.  Purchased  in  1889  by  Mr. 
Budge  at  Bagdad,  and  emanating  probably  from  the  temple  of 
Marduk  at  Babylon.  See  Cuneiform  Texts  from  Babylonian 
Tablets,  etc.,  in  the  British  Museum,  Part  VI.,  PL  1-2,  and  Boissier, 
Note  sur  un  Monument  Babylonien  se  rapportant  a  VExtispicine 
(Geneva,  1899),  who  w-as  the  first  to  recognise  its  real  character 
as  a  model  of  a  sheep's  liver,  used  as  an  object  of  instruction  in 
hepatoscopy  in  some  temple  school.  The  chief  parts  of  the  liver 
are  shown.  The  object  is  covered  with  inscriptions  which  give 
the  prognostications  derived  from  signs  on  the  liver,  each  prog- 
nostication referring  to  some  sign  near  the  part  of  the  liver  where 
the  words  stand.  The  characters  point  to  the  time  of  Hammurapi 
{c.  2000  B.c)  as  the  date  of  the  model. 
Fig.  2.  Bronze  Model  of  Liver  found  near  Piacenza  in  1877 — show- 
ing chief  parts  of  the  liver,  very  much  conventionaHsed  and 
covered  with  Etruscan  characters,  which  furnish  for  the  most  part 
names  of  deities.  The  model  was  evidently  used  for  purposes  of 
instruction  in  the  Etruscan  system  of  hepatoscopy — just  like  the 
Babylonian  model.  See  Korte,  "Die  Bronzeleber  von  Piacenza" 
{Mitteilungen  des  Kais.  Detitsch.  Archaeologischen  Institute  [Rom- 
ische  Abt.]  XX.,  pp.  348-379)  and  the  literature  given  in  the 
course  of  the  article.     It  dates  from  about  the  3rd  century  B.C. 


Fig.  I.     Clay  Model  of  vSheep's  Liver 
(Babylonian,  c.  2000  B.  C.) 


Fig.  2.     Bronze  Model  of  Liver  (Etruscan,  c.  3d  century  B.  C.) 


Divination  191 

This  primitive  process  of  divining  the  future,  gradu- 
ally elaborated  into  a  complicated  system,  spread  far 
and  wide  through  the  influence  shed  on  the  ancient 
world  by  the  Euphratean  culture.  For  centuries,  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind,  the  study  of  hepatoscopy  was 
carried  on  in  the  schools  attached  to  the  temples  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria,  the  collections  made  by  the 
priests  serving  the  double  purpose  of  handbooks  for 
practical  use,  and  text-books  for  instructing  pupils  in 
training  for  the  priesthood.  From  the  remote  days  of 
Hammurapi  there  has  come  down  to  us  an  eloquent 
witness  to  the  prominence  occupied  by  hepatoscopy 
in  the  religious  life  of  Babylonia,  in  the  form  of  a 
clay  model  of  a  sheep's  liver  ^  whereon  the  various 
divisions  are  carefully  indicated,  and  in  addition  is 
covered  with  interpretations,  applicable  to  signs  noted 
in  every  portion  of  the  organ.  This  model  was  unques- 
tionably an  object-lesson  employed  in  a  Babylonian 
temple  school — probably  in  the  very  one  attached 
to  Marduk's  temple  in  Babylon  itself^ — to  illustrate 
the  method  of  divination  and  to  explain  the  principles 
underlying  the  interpretation  of  the  signs. 

Similar  models  have  quite  recently  been  found  in 
one  of  the  centres  of  Hittite  settlements  at  Boghaz- 
Kevi,  and  in  view  of  the  close  relationship  between 

^  First  published  in  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  VI.,  Plate  i.  See 
Plate  2 1 ,  Fig.  i . 

^  See  below,  p.  273  seg. 


192  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

the  Hittites  and  the  Babylonians,  which  can  now  be 
traced  to  the  threshold  of  the  third  millennium  before 
our  era,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Babylon- 
ian system  of  hepatoscopy  was  carried  far  into  the 
interior  of  Asia  Minor.  Babylonian- Assyrian  hepa- 
toscopy also  furnishes  a  strong  support  for  the  hy- 
pothesis— probable  on  other  grounds — which  connects 
the  Etruscan  culture  with  that  of  the  Euphrates 
Valley.  Among  the  Etruscans  we  likewise  find  liver 
divination  not  only  occupying  an  important  position 
in  the  official  cult,  but  becoming  a  part  of  it.  As  a 
companion  piece  to  the  Babylonian  model  of  a  sheep's 
liver,  we  have  a  bronze  model,  ^  found  about  thirty 
years  ago  near  Piacenza  in  Italy,  which,  covered  with 
Etruscan  characters,  shows  almost  the  same  general 
design    as    the    Babylonian    model.     This    Etruscan 

^  See  Korte,  "  Die  Bronzeleber  von  Piacenza,"  in  the  Mitteilun- 
gen  des  kais.  Deutsch.  Archaeolog.  Instituts  (Romische  Abteilung), 
vol.  XX.,  pp.  348-379.  The  Etruscan  characters  have  been 
identified  as  the  names  of  deities,  and  the  sixteen  divisions  marked 
along  the  edge  of  the  model  coimected  with  the  sixteen  regions 
into  which  the  heavens  were  divided.  Korte,  therefore,  cor- 
rectly designates  this  model  as  a  microcosm  reflecting  the 
macrocosm.  This  combination  of  hepatoscopy  and  astrology 
has  suggested  to  Wanda  von  Bartels  the  theory  that  the  Etrus- 
cans developed  an  elaborate  cosmological  symbolism  in  con- 
nection with  the  liver.  See  her  monograph,  Die  Etruskische 
Bronzeleber  von  Piacenza  in  ihrer  symbolischen  Bedeutung  (Berlin, 
19 10).  While  I  cannot  accept  all  of  the  ingenious  and  indus- 
trious author's  deductions,  I  consider  Frau  von  Bartels's  main  hy- 
pothesis to  be  one  eminently  deserving  the  careful  consideration 
of  scholars.     See  Plate  21,  Fig.  2. 


Divination  193 

model,  dating  probably  from  the  third  centtiry 
B.C.,  but  taking  us  back  to  a  prototype  that  may 
be  considerably  older,  served  precisely  the  same 
ptu*pose  as  its  Babylonian  counterpart:  namely, 
to  explain  liver  divination  to  the  young  haruspices 
of  Etruria.  The  importance  of  this  form  of  divina- 
tion is  illustrated  by  other  Etruscan  antiquities, 
such  as  the  tomb  of  an  haruspex,  who  holds 
in  his  left  hand  a  liver  as  the  sign-manual  of  his 
profession. ' 

Through  the  Etruscans  hepatoscopy  came  to  the 
Romans,  and  it  is  significant  that  down  through  the 
days  of  the  Roman  Republic  the  official  augurs  were 
generally  Etruscans,  as  Cicero^  and  other  writers  ex- 
pressly tell  us.  The  references  to  liver  divination 
are  numerous  in  Latin  writers,  and  although  the  term 
used  by  them  is  a  more  general  one,  exta, — usually 
rendered  "entrails," — when  we  come  to  examine  the 
passages,^  we  find,  in  almost  all  cases,  the  omen 
specified  is  a  sign  noted  on  the  liver  of  a  sacrificial 
animal.  So  Livy,  Valerius  Maximus,  Pliny,  and 
Plutarch  unite  in  recording  that  when  the  omens  were 
taken  shortly  before  the  death  of  Marcellus,  during  the 
war  against  Hannibal,  the  liver  of  the  sacrificial  ani- 

^  Reproduced  in  Korte's  article,  and  also  by  Blecher,  De  Ex- 
tispicio  (Giessen,  1905),  together  with  other  objects  in  which  the 
liver  as  the  symbol  of  divination  is  pictured. 

»  De  Divinatione,  i.,  2. 

3  Collected  by  Blecher,  op.  ciL,  pp.  11-22. 

13 


194  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

mal  had  no  processus  pyramidalis,^  which  was  re- 
garded as  an  unfavourable  sign,  presaging  the  death 
of  the  Roman  general.  Pliny  ^  specifies  a  large  num- 
ber of  historical  occasions  when  forecasts  were  made 
by  the  augurs,  and  almost  all  his  illustrations  are  con- 
cerned with  signs  observed  on  the  liver. 

The  same  is  the  case  with  the  numerous  references 
to  divination  through  sacrificial  animals  found  in 
Greek  writers;  for  the  Greeks  and  Romans  alike 
resorted  to  this  form  of  divination  on  all  occasions. 
In  Greek,  too,  the  term  applied  to  such  divination 
is  a  general  one,  hiera  or  hiereia,  the  "sacred  parts," 
but  the  specific  examples  in  every  instance  deal  with 
signs  on  the  liver.  ^  Thus,  e.g,,  in  the  Electra  of 
Euripides, "^  ^gisthos,  when  surprised  by  Orestes, 
is  represented  in  the  act  of  examining  the  liver  of 
an  ox  sacrificed  on  a  festive  occasion.  Holding  the 
liver  in  his  hand,  ^Egisthos  observes  that  ''there  was 
no  lobe,  5  and  that  the  gate^  and  the  gall-bladder  por- 
tended evil."  While  ^Egisthos  is  thus  occupied, 
Orestes  steals  upon  him  from  behind  and  deals  the 
fatal  blow,     ^schylus,  in  the  eloquent  passage  in 

^  Called  in  Latin  hepatoscopy  caput  jecoris.  See  above, 
p.  172,  note  2. 

'Hist.  Nat.,  Book  XL,  189-191. 

3  See  the  passages  collected  by  Blecher,  De  ExHspicio,  pp.  3-1 1. 

4  LI.  826-29. 

s  I.e.,  again  the  processus  pyramidalis  which  the  Greeks  called 
"the  lobe"  par  excellence;  see  above,  p.  172,  note  2. 

*  The  depression  between  the  upper  and  the  lower  lobes. 


Divination  i95 

which  the  Chorus  describes  the  many  benefits  con- 
ferred on  mankind  by  the  unhappy  Prometheus,  as- 
cribes to  the  Titan  the  art  also  of  divination,  but  while 
using  the  general  term,  the  liver  is  specified; 

The  smoothness  of  the  entrails,  and  what  the  colour  is,  whether 
portending  good  fortune,  and  the  multi-coloured  well-formed  gall- 
bladder. ^ 

Whether  or  not  the  Greeks  adopted  this  system  of 
hepatoscopy  through  the  influence  likewise  of  the 
Etruscans,  or  whether  or  not  it  was  due  to  more  direct 
contact  with  Babylonian- Assyrian  culture  is  an  open 
question.  The  eastern  origin  of  the  Etruscans  is 
now  generally  admitted,  and  it  may  well  be  that 
in  the  course  of  their  migration  westward  they  came 
in  contact  with  settlements  in  Greece;  but  on  the 
other  hand,  the  close  affiliation  between  Greece  and 
Asia  Minor  ^  furnishes  a  stronger  presumption  in 
favour  of  the  more  direct  contact  with  the  Baby- 
lonian system  through  its  spread  among  Hittite 
settlements. 

VII 

Liver  divination,  however,  in  thus  passing  to  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  underwent  an  important  modi- 
fication which  was  destined  eventually  to  bring  the 
practice  into  disrepute.     It  will  be  recalled  that  the 

*  Prom.,  lines  495-97. 

»  See  D.  G.  Hogarth,  Ionia  and  the  Far  East,  p.  27  seq;  67  seq. 


196  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

entire  system  of  hepatoscopy  rested  on  the  belief 
that  the  Hver  was  the  seat  of  the  soiil,  and  that  this 
theoretical  basis  was  consistently  maintained  in 
Babylonia  and  Assyria  throughout  all  periods  of  the 
history  of  these  two  states.  Although  there  are  in- 
dications in  phrases  used  in  the  penitential  hymns  and 
lamentations  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  that  the  heart 
was  associated  with  the  Hver,^  just  as  the  Hebrews 
combined  the  Hver  and  heart  in  their  later  reHgious 
poetry  to  cover  the  emotions  and  the  intellect,^  the 
pre-eminent  position  accorded  to  the  liver  as  the  seat 
of  all  soul  Hfe,  the  source  of  intellectual  activity  and 
of  all  emotions — good  and  bad — was  not  seriously  af- 
fected by  any  advance  in  knowledge  that  may  have 
led  to  a  better  recognition  of  the  functions  of  the  heart. 
The  existence  of  an  elaborate  system  of  divination, 
based  upon  primitive  theory,  acted,  with  the  Baby- 
lonians, as  a  firm  bulwark  against  the  introduction 
of  any  rival  theory.  Not  so,  however,  among  the 
Romans,  whose  augurs  took  what  seemed  an  in- 
nocent and  logical  step,  in  order  to  bring  the  system 
of  divination  into  accord  with  more  advanced  anat- 

^  A  phrase  frequently  appearing  as  a  refrain  in  these  poetical 
compositions  reads  "may  thy  heart  be  at  rest,  thy  liver  be  ap- 
peased." See  Jastrow,  Religion  (English),  p.  324.  See  above, 
p.  151. 

» In  the  Psalms,  heart  and  Hver  are  used  in  this  way;  e.g.,  Ps. 
xvi.,  9,  and  also  Ps.  Ivii.,  9,  cviii.,  2,  where  the  text  is  to  be 
changed  to  kdbed,  "liver,"  instead  of  kdbdd,  "glory,"  which 
gives  no  sense. 


Divination  197 

omy,  by  adding  to  the  examination  of  the  liver  that 
of  the  heart,  as  being  likewise  an  organ  through  which 
an  insight  could  be  obtained  into  the  soul  of  the 
animal,  and  hence  into  that  of  the  god  to  whom  it 
was  sacrificed.  Pliny  has  an  interesting  passage  in 
his  Natural  History  in  which  he  specifies  the  occasion 
when,  for  the  first  time,  the  heart  in  addition  to 
the  liver  of  the  sacrificial  animal  was  inspected  to 
secure  an  omen. '  The  implication  in  the  passage  of 
Pliny  is  that  prior  to  this  date,  which  corresponds 
to  c.  274  B.C.,  the  liver  alone  was  used. 

Liver  and  heart  continued  to  be,  from  this  time  on, 
the  chief  organs  inspected,  but  occasionally  the  lungs 
also  were  examined,  and  even  the  spleen  and  the 
kidneys.  Owing  to  the  growing  habit  of  inspecting 
other  organs  beside  the  liver,  it  became  customary  to 
speak  of  consulting  the  exta — a  term  which  included 
all  these  organs.  Similarly,  we  may  conclude  from 
the  use  of  the  terms  splangchna  ("entrails")  and 
hiera  ("sacred  parts")  in  Greek  writers,  when  referring 
to  divination  through  the  sacrificial  animal,  that 
among  the  Greeks  also,  who  as  little  as  the  Romans 
were  restrained  by  any  force  of  ancient  tradition, 
the  basis  on  which  hepatoscopy  rested  was  shifted, 
in  deference  to  a  more  scientific  theory  of  anatomy 
which  dethroned  the  liver  from  its  position  in  primi- 
tive and  non-scientific  beliefs.     This  step,  though  ap- 

*  Book  XL,  186;  at  the  time  when  Pyrrhus  left  Italy. 


198  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

parently  progressive,  was  fatal  to  the  rite,  for  in 
abandoning  the  belief  that  the  liver  was  sole  seat  of  the 
soul,  the  necessity  for  inspecting  it  in  order  to  divine 
the  future  was  lost.  There  could  be  but  one  claimant 
as  the  legitimate  organ  of  divination.  If  the  soul 
were  not  in  the  liver  but  in  the  heart,  then  the  heart 
should  have  been  inspected,  but  to  take  both  the 
liver  and  the  heart,  and  to  add  to  these  even  the  lungs 
and  other  organs  was  to  convert  the  entire  rite  into 
a  groundless  superstition — a  survival  in  practice, 
based  on  an  outgrown  beHef. 

It  is  si'gnificant  that  this  step  was  not  taken  by  the 
Babylonians  or  Assyrians  nor,  so  far  as  we  know,  by 
the  ancient  Etruscans,  but  only  by  the  Romans  and 
the  Greeks.  That  they  did  so  may  be  taken  as  an 
additional  indication  that  hepatoscopy  among  them 
was  an  importation,  and  not  an  indigenous  growth. 
As  a  borrowed  practice,  the  Greeks  and  Romans  felt 
no  pressure  of  tradition  which  in  Babylonia  kept  the 
system  of  liver  interpretation  intact  down  to  the 
latest  days.  A  borrowed  rite  is  always  more  liable 
to  modification  than  one  that  is  indigenous,  as  it  were, 
and  attached  to  the  very  soil;  thus  it  happens  that, 
under  foreign  influences,  divination  through  the  liver, 
resting  upon  deductions  from  a  primitive  belief  per- 
sistently maintained,  degenerates  into  a  foolish  super- 
stition without  reason.  It  is  also  an  observation  that 
has    many  parallels   in    the  history    of   religion: — a 


Divination  199 

i 
borrowed  rite  is  always  more  liable  to  abuse.  It  is  not, 
therefore,  surprising  to  find  that  the  "inspection"  of 
an  animal  for  purposes  of  divination  degenerated  still 
further  among  Greeks  and  Romans  into  wilful  deceit 
and  trickery.  Frontinus^  and  Polyaenus^  tell  us  of  the 
way  in  which  the  "inspectors"  of  later  days  had  re- 
course to  base  tricks  to  deceive  the  masses.  They 
tell,  for  instance,  of  a  certain  augur,  who,  desirous 
of  obtaining  an  omen  that  would  encourage  the  army 
in  a  battle  near  at  hand,  wrote  the  words,  "victory  of 
the  king,"  backwards  on  the  palm  of  his  hand,  and 
then,  having  pressed  the  smooth  surface  of  the  sacri- 
ficial liver  against  his  palm,  held  aloft  to  the  aston- 
ished gaze  of  the  multitude  the  organ  bearing  the 
miraculous  omen.^  The  augur's  name  is  given  as 
Soudinos  "the  Chaldean,"  but  this  epithet  had  be- 
come at  this  time,  for  reasons  to  be  set  forth  in  the 
next  lecture,  generic  for  soothsayers  and  tricksters, 
indiscriminately,  without  any  implied  reference  to 
nationality.  Hence  Soudinos,  who  may  very  well 
have  been  a  Greek,  is  called  "the  Chaldean." 

Whatever  the  deficiencies  of  the  Babylonian-As- 

^  Strafegematon,  i.,  11-14. 

'  Strategematon,  iv.,  20.  See  also  Hippolytus,  de  Errore  Re- 
ligionum,  i.,  40,  who  speaks  of  it  as  a  common  trick. 

3  Frontinus  tells  the  story  in  connection  both  with  a  cam- 
paign of  Alexander  the  Great  and  with  a  war  waged  by  Eumenos, 
the  son  of  Attalos  I.,  of  Pergamos.  Polyaenus  places  the  in- 
cident in  the  days  of  Philip  of  Macedon. 


200  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Syrian  "inspectors"  may  have  been,  it  must  be  al- 
lowed, from  the  knowledge  transmitted  to  us,  that 
down  to  the  end  of  the  neo-Babylonian  empire  they 
acted  fairly,  honestly,  and  conscientiously.  The 
collections  of  omens  and  the  official  reports  show  that 
they  by  no  means  flattered  their  royal  masters  by 
favourable  omens.  It  would  have  been,  indeed, 
hazardous  to  do  so;  but  whatever  their  motives,  the 
fact  remains  that  in  the  recorded  liver  examinations 
we  find  unfavourable  conclusions  quite  as  frequently 
as  favourable.  In  a  large  number  of  reports  delivered 
by  the  priests  there  seems  nothing,  so  long  as  the 
religion  itself  held  sway,  to  warrant  a  suspicion  of 
trickery  or  fraud  of  any  kind.  At  most,  we  may 
possibly  here  and  there  detect  a  not  unnatural 
eagerness  on  the  part  of  a  diviner  to  justify  his 
conclusion,  or  to  tone  down  a  highly  inauspicious 
prognostication . 

With  the  decline  of  faith  in  the  ancient  gods  and 
goddesses,  which  sets  in  after  the  advent  of  Cyrus  (539 
B.C.),  leaving  in  its  wake,  as  we  have  seen,^  anew  and 
much  more  advanced  and  more  spiritual  religion,  a 
different  spirit  is  spread  abroad.  Contact  with  Greek 
culture  also  proved  another  serious  blow  to  the  time- 
honoured  religious  system.  An  era  of  degeneration  fol- 
lowed in  the  Euphrates  Valley,  which  is  responsible 
for  the  disrepute  into  which  the  term  "  Chaldean"  now 

^  See  above,  p.  59  seq. 


Divination  201 

fell.  ^  The  old  bdril  priests,  the  "inspectors"  of  livers 
and  the  "inspectors"  of  the  heavens,  became  the  tools 
of  rulers  whose  interest  was  to  keep  alive  the  super- 
stitions of  the  past.  An  end,  sad  indeed  for  a  re- 
ligious rite  which  had  been  so  carefiilly  cherished  and 
developed  into  an  elaborate  system  by  generations  of 
priests,  who  also  took,  it  must  be  remembered,  a 
large  and  honourable  share  in  rearing  the  imposing 
structure  of  Euphratean  civilisation. 

VIII 

In  addition  to  divination  through  the  liver  there 
were  various  other  methods  of  divination  practised  by 
Babylonians  and  Assyrians.  Prominent  among  them 
is  the  pouring  of  oil  into  a  basin  of  water,  or  of  pour- 
ing water  on  oil,  and  then  observing  the  bubbles  and 
rings  formed  by  the  oil.  References  to  this  method 
are  frequently  found  in  ritualist  texts,  with  allusions 
that  point  to  its  great  antiquity.^  Besides  an  in- 
teresting allusion  to  the  use  of  this  method  by  a  ruler 
of  the  Cassite  period  (c.  1700  B.C.),  before  undertaking 
an  expedition  to  a  distant  land  to  bring  back  the 
statues  of  Marduk  and  his  consort,  which  had  been 
carried  off  by  an  enemy,  ^  we  have  two  elaborate 

^  See  further  p.  262  seq.    , 

'  In  one  of  these  texts  (Zimmern,  Beitrdge  zur  Kenntniss  der 
Babylonischen  Religion,  Nr.  24),  the  method  is  traced  back  to  the 
legendary  founder  of  the  bdril  priesthood. 

3  Rawlinson,  V.,  Plate  33,  col.  ii.,  8. 


202  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

texts,  dating  from  the  Hammurapi  period/  forming 
a  handbook  for  the  guidance  of  the  bdru  priests,  which 
expound  a  large  number  of  signs  to  be  observed  in  the 
mingling  of  oil  and  water,  together  with  the  interpre- 
tations thereof.  From  these  examples  we  can  recon- 
struct the  system  devised  by  the  priests,  which,  as  in 
the  case  of  hepatoscopy,  rested  largely  upon  an  as- 
sociation of  ideas,  but  in  part  also  upon  the  record  of 
subsequent  events.  Divination  by  oil  is,  however, 
entirely  overshadowed  by  the  pre-eminence  obtained 
by  hepatoscopy,  and  does  not  appear  to  have 
formed,  at  least  in  the  later  periods,  an  integral  part 
of  the  cult. 

The  field  of  divination  was  still  further  enlarged  by 
the  inclusion  of  all  unusual  happenings  in  the  life  of 
man,  or  of  animals  or  in  nature,  which,  in  any  way, 
aroused  attention.  The  suspense  and  anxiety  created 
by  such  happenings  could  be  relieved  only  through  a 
bdru  priest  if  happily  he  could  ascertain,  by  virtue 
of  his  closer  relations  to  the  gods,  what  the  latter  in- 
tended by  these  ominous  signs.  Extensive  collections 
of  all  kinds  of  these  everyday  omens  were  made  by 
the  priests  (just  like  the  liver  divinations),  the  aim 
whereof  is  to  set  forth,  in  a  systematic  manner  every- 
thing of  an  unusual  character  that  followed  the  omen. 
The  scope  is  boundless,  embracing  as  it  does  strange 

»  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  Part  III.,  Plates  2-5.  See  Hunger, 
Becherwahrsagung  bet  den  Babyloniern  (Leipzig,  1903). 


I 


Divination  203 

movements  among  animals,  such  as  the  myster- 
ious appearance  and  disappearance  of  serpents, 
which  impart  to  them  a  peculiar  position  among 
all  ancient  nations ;  or  the  actions  of  dogs  who  to  this 
day,  in  the  Orient,  enjoy  some  of  the  privileges  ac- 
corded only  to  sacred  animals.  The  flight  of  birds 
was  regarded  as  fraught  with  significance;  swarms  of 
locusts  were  a  momentous  warning  in  every  sense  of 
the  word;  with  ravens  also  the  Babylonians,  in  com- 
mon with  many  another  nation,  associated  fore- 
bodings, though  not  always  of  a  gloomy  character. 

Monstrosities  among  men  and  brutes,  and  all  man- 
ner of  peculiarities  among  infants  or  the  young  of 
animals,  or  among  those  giving  birth  to  them,  form 
another  large  division  in  the  extensive  series  of  omens 
compiled  by  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  priests. 
The  mystery  of  life,  giving  rise  everywhere  to  certain 
customs  observed  at  birth  and  death,  would  nattirally 
fix  attention  on  the  conditions  under  which  a  new 
life  was  ushered  into  the  world;  yet  many  of  the  con- 
tingencies recorded  in  this  division,  as  well  as  in 
others,  are  so  remote  and  indeed  so  improbable  as  to 
leave  on  us  the  impression  that,  to  some  extent,  at 
least,  these  collections  may  be  purely  academic  ex- 
ercises, devised  to  illustrate  the  application  of  the 
underlying  principles  of  the  whole  system  of  inter- 
pretation. There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  of  the 
practical  purpose  also  served  by  these  collections,  after 


204  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

making  due  allowance  for  their  partially  theoretical 
character.  Their  special  interest  for  us  lies  in  their 
representing  a  phase  of  divination  wherein  the  private 
individual  had  a  larger  share.  While  the  priests  are 
in  all  cases  the  interpreters  of  omens  and  incidents, 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  consultation  of 
them  was  limited  to  the  rulers.  Many  of  the  in- 
terpretations of  the  signs  in  the  miscellaneous  omen 
collections  bear  directly  on  the  private  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  not,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of 
hepatoscopy,  on  public  events.  The  priests,  when 
consulted  by  "the  man  in  the  street,"  merely  take  the 
place  of  the  magic  workers  of  more  primitive  ages,  of 
the  medicine-men,  of  the  rain-makers,  or  the  wizards. 
No  doubt,  these  priests  were  also  paid  for  their  services 
to  individuals;  and  we  may  safely  assume  that  the 
fees  for  answering  questions  furnished  a  considerable 
proportion  of  the  income  of  the  temple. 

Midway  between  an  official  and  an  unofficial  phase 
of  divination,  is  the  interpretation  of  dreams;  this 
was,  likewise,  a  perquisite  of  the  bdni  priests.  Almost 
as  deep  as  the  mystery  of  life  and  of  death  is  the  mys- 
tery of  sleep.  The  visions  during  sleep  have  there- 
fore a  special  significance.  It  is  in  a  dream  that 
Gudea  receives  the  command  to  build  a  sanctuary  to 
Ningirsu,^  and  in  the   later  period  of   Babylonian- 

*  Thureau-Dangin,  Sumerisch-Akkadisch  Kdnigsinschrijten, 
p.  90  seq. 


Divination  205 

Assyrian  history,  the  great  conqueror,  Ashurbanapal, 
is,  in  a  dream,  bade  to  be  of  good  cheer  by  Ishtar,  who 
appears  to  him  in  flames  of  fire  and  armed  with 
bow  and  arrow.'  Such  direct  and  vivid  dreams 
need  no  priest  to  interpret;  but  the  signs  ordina- 
rily conveyed  by  dreams  are  of  a  character  so 
indirect  and  mysterious  that  the  average  man  fails 
to  unravel  them.  The  hdru  priests  here  come  to 
the  aid  of  their  fellow-men,  of  both  noble  and 
commoner.  Armed  with  their  exhaustless  collec- 
tions, which  were  not  so  very  greatly  above  the 
level  of  modern  "dream  books"  that  still  make  their 
appeal  to  a  large  and  willing  public,  the  Baby- 
lonian and  Assyrian  dream  interpreters  were  fortified 
for  all  emergencies. 

But  all  these  phases  of  divination  are  foimd  abun- 
dantly throughout  antiquity  and  are  not  confined  to 
Babylonia  and  Assyria.  They  may  be  dismissed, 
therefore,  with  a  brief  mention,  nor  would  more 
examples,  that  might  be  furnished,  add  aught 
to  what  may  be  paralleled  in  almost  any  part 
of  the  ancient  world.  There  is,  however,  one 
branch  of  divination,  falling  within  the  category 
of  what  we  have  designated  as  involimtary  div- 
ination, which,  like  hepatoscopy,  bears  an  exclu- 
sively official  character,    and  in   its   bearing  on  the 

^  Rawlinson,  V.,  Plate  5,  97-104.  See  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
Literature  (ed.  R.  F.  Harper),  p.  114. 


2o6  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

general  welfare  ranks  in  importance  with  divination 
through  the  liver.  That  branch  is  the  observation 
of  the  phenomena  of  the  heavens,  to  which  we  now 
turn. 


LECTURE  IV 


ASTROLOGY 


A  N  attempt  to  read  the  future  in  the  stars  is  hardly 
^'*-  to  be  found  in  the  earHest  stirrings  of  civilisa- 
tion. The  ability  to  grasp  even  the  thought  of  it 
transcends  the  mental  reach  of  man  in  the  lower  stages 
of  civilisation.  Astrology,  does  not,  therefore,  emerge 
until  we  come  to  the  higher  phases  of  culture.  It  ap- 
pears at  the  start  rather  as  an  expression  of  the  science 
of  the  day,  as  attained  by  the  select  few,  than  as  an 
outcome  of  the  beliefs  held  by  the  many.  In  this  re- 
spect, astrology  presents  a  contrast  to  liver  divina- 
tion, which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  based  on  the  beliefs 
that  are  distinctly  primitive  and  popular  in  character, 
though  it  was  finally  developed  into  an  accurate  sys- 
tem, through  the  agency  of  the  priests  of  Babylonia 
and  Assyria. 

The  fundamental  factor  in  astrology  is  the  identifi- 
cation of  the  heavenly  bodies  with  the  chief  gods  of 
the  pantheon.  The  personification  of  the  sun  and 
moon  as  gods — using  the  term  god  in  its  widest  sense 

207 


2o8  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

as  the  belief  in  a  superior  Power,  supposed  to  exercise 
a  direct  influence  upon  man — comes  within  the  scope 
of  popular  beliefs;  but  the  further  step  involved  in 
astrology,  to  wit,  the  identification  of  the  planets  and 
fixed  stars  with  the  gods  themselves,  is  beyond  and 
above  this  scope,  though  this  identification  repre- 
sents a  logical  extension  of  the  thought  which  led  to 
the  personification  of  sun  and  moon  as  gods.  It  is 
precisely  this  extension  of  the  logical  process  that 
stamps  astrology  from  its  rise  as  a  reflection  of  the 
science,  or,  possibly,  the  pseudo-science  of  the  day. 
A  moment's  thought  will  make  this  clear.  The  in- 
fluence of  sun  and  moon  as  active  powers,  affecting 
the  fortunes  and  welfare  of  mankind,  is  manifest  even 
to  people  living  in  a  primitive  state.  The  sun  is  an 
all-important  element,  not  only  as  furnishing  light 
and  heat,  but  because  of  its  co-operation  in  producing 
fertility  of  the  soil;  and,  naturally,  when  the  agricultu- 
ral stage  is  reached  the  sun  becomes  indispensable  to 
the  life  of  the  individual  as  well  as  to  the  community. 
The  moon,  though  its  utility  is  less  obvious,  is  ser- 
viceable as  a  guide  at  night ;  its  regular  phases  con- 
stitute an  important  factor  in  the  measurement  of 
the  seasons.  While  the  thought,  however,  that  the 
stars,  too,  are  gods  might  occur  to  man  in  his  earlier 
stages,  it  would  not  be  likely  to  make  any  deep  im- 
pression, because  of  the  absence  of  any  direct  link 
between  his  own  existence  and  theirs.     Winds  and 


Astrology  209 

storms  would  be  personified  because  they  directly 
affect  man's  well-being.  This  includes  a  personifica- 
tion of  thimder  and  lightning.  But  even  assuming  that 
the  stars  too  had  been  personified,  the  symbolism 
involved  in  making  them  the  equals  of  gods,  and  in 
identifying  them  with  the  powers  whose  real  functions 
belong  to  the  earth,  could  only  have  arisen  in  connec- 
tion with  a  more  profound  theory  regarding  the  relation 
of  the  starry  universe  to  occurrences  on  this  globe. 
fi  The  theory  upon  which  astrology  rests — for  it  did 
not  originate  in  mere  fancy  or  caprice — is  the  assump- 
tion of  a  co-ordination  between  occurrences  on  earth 
and  phenomena  observed  in  the  heavens.  One  needs 
only  to  state  this  theory  in  order  to  recognise  its  ab- 
stract character — relatively  abstract,  of  course.  It 
smacks  of  the  school,  and  is  just  the  kind  of  theory 
that  would  emanate  from  minds  intent  on  finding  ex- 
planations of  the  mysteries  of  the  universe,  more 
satisfactory  than  those  deduced  from  the  crude  ani- 
mistic conceptions  inherent  in  primitive  culture.  To 
be  sure,  even  on  the  assumption  of  a  co-ordinate  re- 
lation between  heaven  and  earth,  there  is  still  room 
for  a  considerable  measure  of  arbitrary  speculation, 
but  the  theory  itself  marks  an  important  advance  to- 
ward the  recognition  of  law  and  order  in  the  universe. 
The  gods,  whose  manifestations  are  to  be  seen  in  the 
heavens,  still  act  according  to  their  own  fancy,  yet 
they  at  least  act  in  concert.  Each  separate  deity  is  no 
14 


210  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

longer  an  unrestrained  law  unto  himself;  and,  more- 
over, what  the  gods  decide  is  certain  to  happen. 
Astrology  makes  no  attempt  to  turn  the  gods  away 
from  their  purpose,  but  merely  to  determine  a  Httle 
in  advance  what  they  propose,  so  as  to  be  prepared 
for  coming  events. 

Through  the  theory  upon  which  astrology  rested  an 
explanation  was  found  for  the  constant  changes  of  the 
heavenly  bodies.  These  changes,  involving  not  only 
alterations  in  the  appearance  and  position  of  the  moon 
but  also  in  the  position  of  certain  stars,  were  inter- 
preted as  representing  the  activity  of  the  gods  in  pre- 
paring the  events  to  take  place  on  earth.  Changes  in 
the  heavens,  therefore,  portended  changes  on  earth. 
The  BibHcal  expression  "hosts  of  heaven"  for  the 
starry  universe  admirably  reflects  the  conception 
held  by  the  Babylonian  astrologers.  Moon,  planets, 
and  stars  constituted  an  army  in  constant  activity, 
executing  military  manoeuvres  which  were  the  result  of 
deliberation  and  which  had  in  view  a  fixed  purpose. 
It  was  the  function  of  the  priest — the  bdru,  or  "in- 
spector," as  the  astrologer  as  well  as  the  "inspector" 
of  the  Hver^  was  called  —  to  discover  this  purpose. 
In  order  to  do  so,  a  system  of  interpretation  was 
evolved,  less  logical  and  less  elaborate  than  the  system 
of  hepatoscopy,  which  was  analysed  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  but  nevertheless  meriting  attention  both  as 

*  See  above,  p.  162  seq. 


Astrology  211 

an  example  of  the  pathetic  yearning  of  men  to  peer 
into  the  minds  of  the  gods,  and  of  the  influence  that 
Babylonian- Assyrian  astrology  exerted  throughout 
the  ancient  world.  This  astrology,  adopted  by  the 
Greeks,  and  welded  to  Greek  modes  of  thought  and 
Greek  views  of  life,  was  handed  on  from  generation 
to  generation  through  the  Middle  Ages  down  to  the 
very  threshold  of  modem  science.  Before,  however, 
discussing  this  theory  and  its  interpretation,  we  must 
consider  the  heavenly  bodies  specially  recognised  by 
Babylonian  and  Assyrian  astrologers. 

II 

Inasmuch  as  astrology  deals  primarily,  as  a  system 
of  divination,  with  the  phenomena  observed  only  at 
night,  the  foremost  place  is  naturally  occupied  by  the 
great  orb  of  night,  the  moon,  which,  when  a  personi- 
fied power,  was  designated  as  En-Zu,  "the  lord  of 
wisdom,"  and  had  the  general  name  Sin.'  While  the 
designation  of  Sin,  as  the  "lord  of  wisdom,"  is  perhaps 
older  than  the  mature  astrological  system,  the  name 
well  illustrates  the  views  associated  with  the  moon- 
god  in  astrology.  The  "wisdom "  meant  is,  primarily, 
that  which  he,  the  moon-god,  derives  from  his  pre- 
eminent position  among  the  forces  or  hosts  of  heaven. 

^  I  am  inclined  to  see  in  En-Zu  or  Zu-En  an  artificial  combina- 
tion based  on  a  "punning"  et^-mology  of  Sin,  and  intended  to 
set  forth  a  chief  attribute  of  the  moon-god.  See  above,  p.  112, 
note  2. 


212  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

He  is  there  the  wisest  of  the  gods,  the  chief  councillor 
in  directing  the  affairs  of  mankind  and  of  the  uni- 
verse. The  title,  so  frequently  assigned  to  him,  of 
the  "father"  of  the  gods,  to  be  found  in  "Sumerian" 
compositions  of  an  early  period,^  is  likewise  partic- 
ularly applicable  to  a  system  of  astral  theology;  it  is 
as  the  chief  luminary  of  the  night  that  he  becomes  the 
"father"  of  the  planets  and  stars,  particularly  when 
we  bear  in  mind  that  in  ancient  as  well  as  in  modern 
Oriental  speech,  "father"  is  a  synonym  of  chief  and 
leader. 

In  astrological  texts.  Sin  always  takes  precedence 
over  Shamash,  the  sun-god,  and  as  a  direct  conse- 
quence of  the  influence  exerted  by  astrology  upon  the 
development  of  the  Babylonian- Assyrian  religion,  Sin 
is  placed  before  Shamash  in  the  enumeration  of  the 
members  of  the  pantheon  in  all  kinds  of  texts,  after 
a  certain  period.^  In  the  case  of  the  moon,  the  chief 
phenomena  to  which  attention  was  directed  were  the 
appearance  of  the  new-moon  or  conjunction  with 
the  sun;  the  period  of  full-moon  or  opposition  to  the 
sun ;  the  disappearance  of  the  moon  at  the  end  of  the 
month;  halos — large  and  small — appearing  around 
the  moon;  unusual  phenomena,  such  as  obscurations 

'  So,  e.g.,  in  the  old  Babylonian  compositions  for  the  Sin  cult 
published  in  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  Part  XV.,  Plate  17.  See  Lang- 
don,  Sumerian  and  Babylonian  Psalms,  pp.  296-99. 

'  For  examples,  see  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  p.  457, 
notes  2  and  3. 


Astrology  213 

of  the  moon's  surface  due  to  atmospheric  causes,  and, 
lastly,  eclipses. 

Astrology  in  Babylonia  is  many  centuries  older  than 
the  regulation  of  the  calendar  by  adjusting  the  move- 
ments of  the  moon  to  the  annual  revolution  of  the  sun. 
Indeed,  it  is  not  until  after  the  conquest  of  the  Euphra- 
tes Valley  by  the  Persians  that  we  come  upon  calcula- 
tions regarding  the  movements  of  the  new-moon,  while 
a  lunar  cycle  of  nineteen  years  was  not  introduced  until 
about  the  third  century  B.C.  Prior,  therefore,  to  this 
advance  in  genuine  astronomical  knowledge,  actual  ob- 
servation was  the  sole  method  employed  to  determine 
each  month  the  time  of  the  appearance  of  the  new- 
moon,  whether  it  would  be  on  the  evening  of  the  29th 
or  on  the  evening  of  the  30th  day.  In  case  the  heavens 
were  obscured  by  clouds  on  the  night  when  the  new- 
moon  was  expected  to  appear,  it  was  considered  a  bad 
omen;  and  an  astrologer  was  obliged  to  wait  for  a 
clear  night,  before  it  could  be  determined  by  the  posi- 
tion and  appearance  of  the  moon,  whether  or  not  the 
expected  day  had  been  the  first  day  of  the  month. 

This  uncertainty  in  regard  to  the  new-moon  in- 
volved an  even  greater  uncertainty  each  month  in  re- 
gard to  the  time  of  full-moon.  The  astrological  texts 
offer  a  margin  of  no  less  than  five  days,  as  a  pos- 
sible time  of  full-moon,  from  a  premature  appearance 
on  the  1 2th  and  13th  day  to  a  belated  appearance  on 
the  15th  or  i6th  day,  with  the  14th  regarded  as  the 


214  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

normal  period.     Both  the  too  early  and  the  too  late 

appearance  were  regarded  as  unfavourable  omens,  be- 
cause of  the  element  of  abnormality,  but  the  exact 
nature  of  the  unfavourable  omen  varied  with  the 
months  of  the  year.  It  prognosticated  bad  crops  if 
it  occurred  in  one  month;  pestilence,  if  in  another;  in- 
ternal disturbances  of  the  country,  if  in  a  third. 
Thus,  also,  a  premature  disappearance  of  the  moon 
at  the  end  of  the  month,  or  an  absence  of  the  moon  for 
more  than  the  normal  three  days,  was  viewed  with 
dismay,  and,  indeed,  even  its  disappearance  at  the 
normal  time  occasioned  anxiety — a  survival  of  earlier 
beliefs  which  regarded  this  disappearance  as  the  cap- 
ture of  the  moon  by  hostile  powers  in  the  heavens.^ 
This  day  of  disappearance  was  called  a  "day  of  sor- 
row."^ Solemn  expiatory  rites  were  prescribed, 
primarily,  for  the  niler,  who  had  to  exercise  special 
precautions  not  to  provoke  the  gods  to  anger  during 
those  anxious  days.  The  Arabs  of  our  days  still  hail 
the  appearance  of  the  new  moon  with  exclamations  of 
joy  and  clapping  of  hands,  calling  it  by  a  term,  hildl,^ 

*  See  the  myth  of  the  capture  of  the  moon,  embodied  in  an  in- 
cantation ritual,  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  i.,  P-  362  seq. 

'  Um  bubbuli — literally  "the  day  of  snatching  away"  (sc.  of 
the  moon),  also  applied  to  the  heliacal  setting  of  the  planets. 

3  Hilal  belongs  to  the  class  of  onomatopoetic  words  ("sound- 
imitation  words")  like  our  English  "Hail"  and  "Hello."  "Hal- 
lelujah" is  a  verbal  form  of  the  same  "sound  imitation"  stem 
with  the  addition  of  the  divine  name,  signifying,  therefore, 
"Hail  toJah!"or"Hailto  Jahweh!"     See  below,  p.  336,  note  2. 


Astrology  215 

which,  like  its  derivative  "Hallelujah,"  emphasises  in 
its  very  sound  the  relief  felt  at  the  release  of  the  moon 
from  captivity. 

Greater  terror  was  proportionately  aroused  by  an 
eclipse  or  by  any  unexpected  obscuration  of  the 
moon's  surface.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  Baby- 
lonians and  Assyrians,  even  in  the  latest  period,  sus- 
pected the  real  cause  of  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  or  of 
the  sun ;  though  it  is  not  impossible  that  at  a  late  date 
they  noted  the  regular  recurrences  of  eclipses.  In  the 
astrological  texts  the  term  for  eclipse — atalu,  signify- 
ing "shadow" — is  used  for  any  kind  of  obscuration  of 
the  moon  or  the  sun,  including  the  greyish  or  yel- 
lowish appearance  due  to  purely  atmospheric  effects. 
The  astrologers,  therefore,  speak  of  an  "eclipse" 
occurring  on  any  day  of  the  month,  ^  without  realising 
that  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  can  take  place  only  in  the 
middle  of  the  month,  and  a  solar  eclipse  at  the  end 
of  the  month.  No  better  illustration  can  be  desired  of 
their  deficiency  in  any  genuine  astronomical  know- 
ledge, until,  at  a  comparatively  late  period,  the  spell  of 
astrological  divination  was  broken  by  the  recognition 

^  See  examples  in  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  pp.  553- 
566,  for  the  moon  (especially  p.  563  seq.)  and  585-599  for  the  sun 
— all  of  them  extracts  from  the  official  collection  of  astrological 
omens.  See  below,  p.  246  seq.  and  251  seq.  In  the  astrological 
reports  and  letters  of  later  Assyrian  days,  fiimishing  the  in- 
terpretations for  actual  occurrences,  eclipses  of  the  moon  are  of 
course  correctly  entered  for  the  middle  of  the  month.  See 
examples  in  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  pp.  514-530. 


21 6  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  the  regularity  of  the  movements  of  the  heavenly 
bodies. 

In  the  case  of  the  sun,  obscurations  and  ecHpses 
constitute  the  most  striking  features.  As  in  the  case 
of  the  monthly  disappearance  of  the  moon,  popular 
fancy  imagined  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  or  sun  to  be 
due  to  a  temporary  discomfiture  of  these  two  great 
luminaries  in  a  conflict  with  the  hosts  of  heaven. 
Among  a  primitive  people  the  terror  aroused  by  an 
eclipse  thus  became  the  origin  for  the  general  un- 
favourable character  of  the  omens  associated  with 
such  distiurbances  in  the  heavens.  To  this  extent, 
therefore,  there  is  a  connecting  link  between  popular 
beliefs  and  the  developed  system  of  astral  theology, 
but  we  pass  beyond  popular  beliefs  when  we  come  to 
other  phenomena  connected  with  the  sun,  such  as 
mock-suns  appearing  around  the  sun,  which  are 
due  to  atmospheric  conditions,  or  horizontal  rays 
occasionally  seen  extending  from  either  side  or 
from  both  sides  of  the  sun.  Such  phenomena 
appear  to  have  excited  attention  among  a  primi- 
tive people  in  no  greater  degree  than  the  halos 
around  the  moon,  which  the  Babylonian- Assyrian 
astrologers  designated  as  courts  or  stalls  according  to 
their  size.  These  phenomena,  as  well  as  the  changes 
in  the  position  of  the  wandering  stars  or  planets, 
fall  within  the  observation  of  a  restricted  circle  of 
more  scientific  observers,  who  scanned  the  heavens  for 


Astrology  217 

signs  of  the  activity  of  the  gods  to  whom  seats  had 
been  there  assigned. 

Ill 

In  regard  to  the  planets,  there  are  reasons  for  be- 
Heving  that  Jupiter  and  Venus  were  the  first  to  be 
clearly  differentiated,  Jupiter  by  virtue  of  its  brilliant 
light,  Venus  through  the  striking  fact  that  it  appeared 
as  an  evening  star  during  one  part  of  the  year,  and  as 
morning  star  during  another.  In  the  astrological 
system  Jupiter  was  identified  with  Marduk,  who,  we 
have  seen,  became  the  chief  god  of  the  pantheon  after 
the  Hammurapi  period;  and  Venus  with  the  chief 
goddess  Ishtar.  As  was  pointed  out  in  a  previous 
lecture,  *  Marduk  appears  to  have  been,  originally,  a 
solar  deity.  This  identification  with  Jupiter  is, 
therefore,  artificial  and  entirely  arbitrary;  and  shows 
that  in  this  combination  of  planets  with  the  chief  gods 
and  goddesses  of  the  pantheon,  the  original  character 
of  the  latter  was  entirely  set  aside.  The  same  is 
true  in  the  identification  of  Venus  with  Ishtar,  for 
Ishtar  is  distinctly  an  earth  goddess,  the  personifica- 
tion of  mother-earth,  viewed  as  the  source  of  vegeta- 
tion and  of  fertility  in  general.  The  twofold  aspect 
of  Venus  as  evening  star  and  morning  star  was  no 
doubt  a  factor  in  suggesting  the  analogy  with  the  god- 
dess Ishtar,  who  likewise  presents  two  aspects — one 

^  See  above,  p.  92. 


21 8  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

during  the  season  of  vegetation,  and  quite  another 
during  the  rainy  and  wintry  season,  when  she  appears 
to  have  been  withdrawn  from  the  scene  of  her  labours, 
or,  as  the  popular  fancy  supposed,  when  she  was  im- 
prisoned in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  by  her  hostile 
sister — the  goddess  of  the  lower  regions. 

The  identification  of  Jupiter  with  Marduk  fur- 
nishes us  with  a  valuable  clue  for  determining  the 
period  when  the  system,  to  be  noted  in  the  astrological 
texts,  was  perfected.  As  a  direct  consequence  of  the 
high  position  assumed  by  Babylon  after  the  union  of 
the  Euphratean  states  under  Hammiirapi,  the  patron 
deity  of  that  city  is  advanced  to  the  position  of  head 
of  the  pantheon.  Had  the  astrological  system  been 
devised  at  an  earlier  period,  Enlil,  the  chief  god  of 
Nippur  and  the  head  of  the  earlier  pantheon,  would 
have  been  associated  with  Jupiter,  and  Ninlil  (or, 
possibly,  Nana  of  Uruk)  with  Venus,  while,  had  the 
priests  of  Eridu  been  the  first  to  make  each  planet  a 
personification  of  one  of  the  great  gods,  they  would 
have  assigned  the  most  important  place  among  the 
planets  to  Ea,  as  the  chief  deity  of  Eridu.  In  fact,  we 
find  few  allusions  to  astrology  in  inscriptions  before  the 
first  dynasty  of  Babylon,  though  it  is  quite  certain 
that  the  beginnings  of  Babylonian  astrology  belong  to 
the  days  of  Sargon.  Still,  it  is  significant  that  the  only 
omens  about  Sargon  and  his  son  Naram-Sin  that  have 
come  down  to  us  are  explanations  of  signs  derived 


Astrology  219 

from    the    inspection    of    the    liver    of    sacrificial 
animals, » 

In  like  manner,  other  allusions  to  the  early  heroes 
and  rulers  of  Babylonia — to  Urumush,  Ibe-Sin,  and 
Gilgamesh — occur  chiefly  in  the  liver  divination  texts,'' 
and  only  rarely  in  collections  of  astrological  omens.  ^ 
We  may,  therefore,  trace  the  perfected  system  of 
astrology  (as  revealed  in  what  texts  we  have)  back  to 
ca,  2000  B.C.  As  to  Jupiter,  attention  was  paid  to  the 
time  of  its  heliacal  rise  and  disappearance,  and  to  its 
lustre — whether,  to  use  the  astrological  terms,  it  was 
"strong"  or  "weak."  Certain  months  were  as- 
signed to  certain  countries: — the  first,  fifth,  and  ninth 
to  Akkad;  the  second,  sixth,  and  tenth  to  Elam  (to 
the  east) ;  the  third,  seventh,  and  eleventh  to  Amurru 
(to  the  west);  the  fourth,  eighth,  and  twelfth  to 
Subartu  or  Guti  (to  the  north) ;  and,  according  to  the 
month  when  Jupiter  appeared  or  disappeared,  the 
omen  was  applied  to  the  corresponding  country.  The 
"strong"  appearance  of  the  planet  was  a  favourable 
omen;  its  "weak"  appearance,  by  association  of  ideas, 
pointed  to  loss  of  power;  but  whether  the  loss  was  for 
the  king  and  his  land  or  his  forces,  or  for  the  enemy's 
land  would  depend  on  such  factors  as  the  month,  or 

*  See  above,  p.  175  seg. 

'See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  p.  226,  note  3. 
3  Examples  will  be  found  in  the  citation  referred  to  in  the 
preceding  note. 


220  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

even  the  day  of  the  month  when  the  phenomenon 
was  observed. 

For  Venus  we  have,  at  the  outset,  the  distinction  be- 
tween her  appearance  as  an  evening  star  and  as  a 
morning  star.  Elaborate  tables  were  prepared,  based 
on  observation,  or  drawn  up  after  a  conventional  pat- 
tern, noting  the  time  of  her  heliacal  rise  as  morning 
star,  the  duration  of  visibility,  the  time  of  her  setting, 
the  length  of  time  during  which  she  remained  "hid- 
den in  the  heavens,"  as  runs  the  astrological  phrase, 
and  the  day  and  month  of  her  reappearance  as  even- 
ing star.  To  each  entry  the  interpretation  was  at- 
tached, and  this  varied  according  to  the  length  of 
time  that  Venus  was  visible,  and  the  character  of  the 
month  wherein  she  reappeared.  These  long  lists, 
worked  out  in  great  detail,  again  illustrate  the  purely 
empirical  character  of  such  astronomical  knowledge 
as  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  possessed,  down 
at  least  to  the  sixth  century  B.C.  For  instance,  the 
period,  according  to  scientific  investigation,  between 
the  heliacal  setting  of  Venus  and  her  heliacal  rise  is 
P  seventy- two  days;  but  in  the  Babylonian- Assyrian 
astrological  texts,  the_period  varies  from  one  month 
to  five jtTiQiiths«=^too  short  on  the  one  hand,  and  too 
long  on  the  other.  In  order  to  account  for  such  dis- 
crepancies, we  must,  perforce,  a^imp  tViat  tlip_^Qh- 
servations  were  defective — for  which  there  is  indeed 
abundant  evidence — and  that  the  lists,  being  compos- 


Astrology  ^21 

ite  productions  of  various  periods,  embody  the  errors  of 
earlier  ages  incorporated  in  the  more  accurate  records 
of  later  periods,  though  even  these  too  were  based 
upon  merely  empirical  knowledge.  But  whatever 
be  the  explanation,  the  ignorance  of  the  Babylonian 
and  Assyrian  astrologers  is  patent;  and  the  infantile 
fancies  which  frequently  crop  out  in  these  astrologi- 
cal texts  keep  pace  with  the  ignorance.  Thus,  the 
peculiar  scintillations  of  Venus,  when  particularly 
bright,  give  to  her  outline  the  appearance  of  rays. 
When  these  rays  were  observed,  Venus  was  said  to 
"have  a  beard,"'  and  when  the  sparkling  edges  faded 
in  lustre,  Venus  was  said  to  have  ''removed  her 
beard."  Venus  with  a  "beard"  was  in  general  fa- 
vourable, while  Venus  without  a  beard  was  in  gen- 
eral unfavourable,  though  here,  too,  the  interpretation 
varied  according  to  the  month  in  which  the  "beard" 
was  put  on ,  or  taken  off.  When  the  rays  appeared  over 
Venus,  she  was  recorded  as  "having  a  crown,"  and  a 
distinction  was  made  between  a  "sun"  crown  and  a 
smaller  one,  a  "  moon  "  crown,  or  crescent, — all  of  which 
illustrates  the  naivete  of  their  astronomical  explanations 
even  while  revealing  their  anxiously  close  observations. 

The  remaining  three  planets — Saturn,  Mercury, 
and  Mars — were  at  first  combined  in  the  designation 
Lu-Bat,  which  became  the  general  term  for  "planet." 

*  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  p.  633. 


222  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

The  term^  conveys  the  idea  that  the  movements  of 
these  planets  were  observed  for  the  purpose  of  secur- 
ing omens,  but,  originally,  either  Saturn,  or  Mercury, 
or  Mars  was  meant  when  the  movement  or  the  posi- 
tion of  a  Lu-Bat  was  referred  to.  This  circumstance 
carries  with  it  the  plausible  conclusion  that,  before  the 
three  planets  were  more  sharply  differentiated  from 
one  another,  the  interpretation  given  to  phenomena 
connected  with  any  one  of  them  was  the  same  as  that 
given  to  the  others.  The  reason,  no  doubt,  for  thus 
grouping  the  three  into  one  class  was  the  difficulty 
involved  in  observing  their  separate  courses.  They 
bore  no  specially  striking  features,  such  as  Jupiter 
or  Venus  possessed,  and  this  was,  also,  no  doubt, 
a  cause  which  led  to  their  being  at  first  put  upon 
the  same  plane.  Of  the  three,  Saturn  appears  to 
have  been  the  first  to  be  more  definitely  differentiated 
from  the  others.  At  all  events,  in  the  completed 
system  Saturn  was  placed  above  Mercury  and  Mars. 
It  received  the  designation  of  the  "steady"  Lu-Bat^ 

^  It  is  composed  of  two  elements, . Lu,  which  means  "sheep," 
and  Bat,  which  means  "dead,"  and  since  in  hepatoscopy  the 
sacrificial  animal  employed  was  invariably  the  sheep,  the  com- 
bination "dead  sheep"  acquired  the  force  of  "omen."  The 
term  thus  incidentally  points  to  the  dependence  of  astrology 
upon  hepatoscopy.  See  a  paper  by  the  writer,  "  Hepatoscopy 
and  Astrology  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria"  {Proc.  Am.  Philos. 
Society,  vol.  xlvii.,  pp.  663  seq.). 

^  Sag-V sh.  =  kaimdnu,  "steady,"  identified  with  the  kewdn  of 
the  Old  Testament  (Amos  v.,  26). 


Astrology  ^23 

because  of  the  slowness  and  regularity  of  its  move- 
ments. Requiring  about  twenty-nine  and  a  half  years 
for  the  revolution  in  its  orbit,  Saturn  is  visible  for  a 
longer  continuous  period  than  Mercury  or  Mars. 
Possibly  by  an  association  of  ideas  that  might  occur 
to  them  but  not  to  us,  Saturn  was  also  looked  upon 
as  a  kind  of  second  sun — a_smaller_Shamash  by  the  <j 
side  of  the_great  Shamash  of  the  day.  ^  Was  there, 
perchance,  a  "learned  theory"  among  the  astrologers 
that  the  illumination  of  the  night  was  due  to  this 
inferior  sun  of  the  night,  which,  because  of  its  pro- 
longed presence,  seemed  more  likely  to  be  the  cause 
thereof  than  the  moon,  which  nightly  changed  its 
phase,  and  even  totally  disappeared  for  a  few  days 
each  month?^  It  would  verily  seem  so;  but,  at  all 
events,  the  fact  that  Saturn  was  also  called  the  "sun" 
is  vouched  for,  both  by  explanatory  notes  attached 
to  astrological  collections,  and  by  notices  in  classical 
writers  to  that  effect.  As  one  of  these  writers^  has 
it,  "Saturn  is  the  star  of  the  sun" — its  satellite,  so  to 
speak,  and  alter  ego. 

^  See  an  article  by  the  writer,  "Sun  and  Saturn,"  in  the 
Revue  d'Assyriologie,  vol.  vii.,  pp.  164-178. 

^  The  southern  skies,  it  must  be  remembered,  are  much 
brighter  at  night  than  are  our  northern  heavens,  and  appear 
to  be  illuminated  even  when  the  moon  is  a  faint  crescent  or  is  en- 
tirely absent.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  for  astrologers  in  their 
fondness  for  speculation  to  hit  upon  the  idea,  that  the  light  of  the 
night  was  due  to  a  body  like  that  of  the  sun  of  the  day. 

3  Diodorus  Siculus,  Biblioth.  Histor.,  ii.,  §.  30,  3,  4. 


224  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

This  association  of  Saturn  with  the  sun  may  have 
been  a  reason  for  identifying  Saturn  with  a  solar  deity, 
Ninib,  who,  it  will  be  recalled,  was  the  sun-god  of 
Nippur,  and  only  second  in  rank  to  Enlil  after  this 
"intruder"  displaced  Ninib'  from  the  actual  leader- 
ship of  the  pantheon  which  he  once  occupied.  Ninib, 
accordingly,  is  well  fitted  to  be  the  associate  and 
"lieutenant"  of  Shamash,  the  paramount  sun-god 
from  a  certain  period  onward. 

Next  in  importance  to  Satiirn  comes  Mars,  which, 
in  contrast  to  Satiirn  exerting,  on  the  whole,  a  most 
beneficent  influence,  was  the  unlucky  planet.  This 
unlucky  and  downright  hostile  character  of  Mars  is 
indicated  by  his  many  names:  such  as  the  "dark" 
Lu-Bat;  "pestilence";  the  "hostile"  one;  the  "re- 
bellious" one;  and  the  like.  He  was  appropriately 
identified  with  Nergal,  the  sun-god  of  Cuthah,  who,  in 
the  process  of  differentiation  among  the  chief  solar 
deities  of  Babylonia,  became  the  sun  of  midsummer, 
bringing  pestilence,  suffering,  and  death  in  its  wake;^ 
in  contrast  with  Ninib  who  was  viewed  more  partic- 
ularly as  the  sun-god  of  the  spring,  restoring  life  and 
bringing  joy  and  gladness.  In  the  systematised 
pantheon,  it  will  be  recalled,  Nergal  was  regarded  as 
the  grim  god  of  war,  and  also  as  the  deity  presiding 
over  the  nether  world — the  Pluto  of  Babylonia,  who, 
with  his  consort  Ereshkigal,  keeps  the  dead  imprisoned 

^  See  above,  p.  76  seq.  '  See  above,  p.  78. 


Astrology  225 

in  hi-^  gloomy  kingdom.  The  association  of  ideas  be- 
tween Nergal,  the  lord  of  the  "dark"  region,  and  the 
dark-red  colour  of  Mars  may  be  regarded  as  an  ele- 
ment of  the  identification  of  Mars  with  Nergal,  just  as 
the  ideas  associated  with  the  colour  red — suggesting 
blood  and  fire — furnished  the  further  reason  for  con- 
necting ill-boding  omens  with  the  appearance  of 
Mars,  and  with  his  position  relative  to  other  planets 
and  stars.  As  an  unlucky  planet,  the  "stronger" 
Mars  appeared  to  be  in  the  heavens,  the  more  baneful 
his  influence.  Hence  the  brilliant  sheen  of  the  planet 
— in  contrast  to  what  we  have  seen  to  have  been  the 
case  with  Jupiter- Mardiik — augured  coming  mis- 
fortune, while  the  "faint"  lustre,  indicating  the  weak- 
ness of  the  planet,  was  regarded  as  a  favourable  sign. 
The  least  important  of  the  planets  in  Babylonian- 
Assyrian  astrology  is  Mercury.  Because  of  its  near- 
ness to  the  sun,  it  is  less  conspicuous  than  the 
others,  and  the  most  difficult  to  observe,  and  was, 
therefore,  termed  the  ' '  faint ' '  planet.  ^  It  is  also  visible 
for  the  shortest  period.  It  can  be  seen  with  the  un- 
aided eye  for  only  a  little  while,  either  shortly  after 
sunset  or  before  sunrise,  and  only  during  a  part  of 
the  year.  In  northern  climes  even  these  restricted 
glimpses  are  not  always  accorded,  and  Copernicus  is 
said  to  have  regretted  on  his  death-bed  that  he  had 

^  Gu-ud,  which  I  read  shakhtu,  and  now  take  in  the  sense  of 
"weak,  handicapped,"  and  the  like. 

15 


226  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

never  actually  seen  Mercury.  As  the  least  signifi- 
cant of  the  planets,  there  was  not  the  same  reason  to 
distinguish  Mercury  by  a  specific  designation,  and 
hence,  instead  of  being  always  referred  to  as  the 
"faint"  planet,  it  is  just  as  often  termed  simply 
Lu-Bat,  not  in  the  sense  of  being  the  one  planet  of  all 
others  as  was  at  one  time  supposed,  but  simply  as  a 
planet  having  no  special  distinction.  Mercury  as 
Lu-Bat  is,  as  it  were,  the  relict  of  the  planets,  the  one 
left  over  of  the  group,  the  Cinderella  among  the 
planets,  relegated  to  an  inferior  position  of  relative 
unimportance  and  neglect.  Because  of  its  smaller 
size  and  of  its  associations,  Mercury  is  identified  with 
the  god  Nebo,  who  in  the  systematised  pantheon,  it 
will  be  recalled,  was  the  son  of  Marduk,  and  the  scribe 
in  the  assembly  of  the  gods,  the  recorder  of  the  de- 
crees of  the  divine  court,  and  also  the  court  messenger. 
This  relationship  of  son  to  father  wherein  Nebo  stands 
to  Marduk — Jupiter — is  well  brought  out  in  an  As- 
syrian astrological  report  where  Mercury  is  called 
"the  star  of  the  crown  prince"  with  an  allusion  to  the 


frequent  designation  of  Jupiter  as  the  "king"  star.' 
Frequently  also  Mercury  is  described  as~tlie  "star  of 
Marduk,"^  the  satellite  and  "lieutenant"  of  Jupiter, 
much  as  Saturn  is  in  the  same  way  styled  '  *  the  star  of 
Shamash."     This  varied  character  of  the  planet  had, 

^  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii-.  p-  652,  note  13. 
*  Ih.,  ii.,  p.  666,  note  2. 


Astrology  227 

however,  curious  consequences.  In  Greek  astrology, 
which,  as  will  be  presently  shown,  is  largely  dependent 
upon  the  Babylonian- Assyrian  system,  Mercury  pos- 
sesses qualities  belonging  to  all  the  other  planets. 
It  is  both  male  and  female,  and  the  only  one  of  the 
planets  of  whom  this  is  said.  The  association  of 
ideas  connected  with  Nebo,  the  god  of  wisdom,  in  a 
very  specific  sense,  and  of  the  art  of  writing,  led  to 
Mercury's  being  regarded  also  as  the  planet  of  intelli- 
gence. The  designation  of  Mercury  as  Lu-Bat  in- 
dicated that  Mercury  summed  up  the  essence  of  the 
powers  attributed  to  the  planets  in  general,  so  that 
even  in  the  latter-day  astrology,  which  survived  the 
revolution  of  thought  brought  about  by  the  natural 
sciences.  Mercury  is  still  associated  with  the  sovd — 
the  seat  of  all  vitality.'  In  Babylonian- Assyrian 
astrology  Mercury  is  a  planet  of  a  favourable  nature. 
Its  appearance  is  in  almost  all  cases  a  good  omen. 
The  interpretations  fluctuate  with  the  months  in 
which  the  planet  is  seen,  but  frequently  refer  to 
abundant  rains  and  good  crops. 

The  scope  of  Babylonian- Assyrian  astrology  was 
still  further  extended  by  the  inclusion  of  the  more  con- 
spicuous stars  and  constellations,  such  as  the  Pleiades, 
Orion,  Sirius,  Aldebaran,  the  Great  Bear,  Regulus, 
Procyon,  Castor  and  Pollux,  Hydra,  and  others. 
The  omens  deduced,  however,  from  constellations  and 

^  See,  e.g.,  Ellen  Bennett,  Astrology  (N.  Y.,  1903),  p.  98. 


228  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

single  stars  were  dependent,  primarily,  upon  the  posi- 
tion of  these  constellations  and  stars  relative  to  the 
planets.  According  as  the  planets  approached  or 
moved  away  from  them,  the  omen  was  regarded  as 
favourable  or  unfavourable,  and  the  decision  was 
again  dependent  upon  their  own  associations.  Thus, 
if  Venus  passed  beyond  Procyon,  it  pointed  to  the 
carrying  away  of  the  produce  of  the  land;  if  she  ap- 
proached Orion  it  prognosticated  diminished  crops, 
— a  meagre  yield  from  palms  and  olives.  ^ 

With  a  realisation  of  the  fact  that  the  sun  and 
planets  move  in  well-defined  orbits,  the  need  of  dis- 
tinguishing the  exact  position  occupied  at  any  given 
moment  by  any  of  those  bodies  naturally  became 
pressing.  The  ecliptic,  known  as  the  "pathway  of  the 
sun,"  was  divided  into  three  sections,  each  designated 
for  one  of  the  deities  of  that  theoretically  accepted 
triad  which  summed  up  the  powers  and  subdivisions 
of  the  universe.^  These  sections  were  known  as  the 
paths  of  Anu,  Enlil,  and  Ea  respectively.  Each  of 
these  sections  was  assigned  to  a  country,  the  Anu  sec- 
tion to  Elam,  the  Enlil  section  to  Akkad,  and  the  Ea 
section  to  Amurru.  Elam  lying  to  the  east  of  the 
Euphrates  Valley,  and  Amurru  lying  to  the  west, 
Akkad  was  in  the  middle  between  the  two.  Accord- 
ing as  a  planet  in  its  course  stood  in  one  division  or 

^  Virolleaud,  VAstrologie  Chaldeenne,  Ishtar,  No.  vii.,  37. 
^  See  above,  p.  37. 


Astrology  229 

an  other,  the  omen  was  supposed  to  have  special 
reference  to  the  land  in  question.  Thus  the  planet 
Venus,  when  rising  in  the  division  of  Ea,  portended 
that  Amurru  would  have  superabundance,  if  in  the 
division  of  Anu  that  Elam  would  be  prosperous,  and 
if  in  the  division  of  Enlil  that  Akkad  would  be  bene- 
fited. In  like  manner,  if  Venus  reached  her  ciilmina- 
tion  in  the  division  of  Anu,  Elam  would  enjoy  the 
grace  of  the  gods,  if  in  the  division  of  Enlil,  then 
Akkad,  and  if  in  the  division  of  Ea,  Amurru  wotdd  be 
so  favoured.^ 

This  threefold  division  of  the  ecliptic  does  not  ap- 
pear, however,  to  have  been  an  indication  sufficiently 
precise  of  the  position  of  the  planet;  accordingly,  the 
stars  near  the  ecliptic  were  combined  into  groups,  and 
designations  more  or  less  fanciful  were  given  to  them. 
In  this  way,  twelve  such  groups  were  gradually  dis- 
tinguished, corresponding  to  our  constellations  of  the 
zodiac,  though,  it  should  be  added,  there  are  no  in- 
dications that  the  Babylonians  or  the  Assyrians 
divided  the  ecliptic  into  twelve  equal  divisions  of 
30°  each.  Retaining  the  division  of  the  ecliptic  into 
three  equal  sections,  they  distributed  constellations 
among  these  sections  as  a  further  means  of  specifying 
the  position  of  a  planet  at  any  moment,  and  also  as  an 
enlargement  of  the  field  of  astrological  divination. 
From  symbols  on  the  so-called  boundary  stones,  it 

^  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  626  seq. 


PI.  22 — Continued 

All  these  gods,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  named,  are  mentioned 
in  the  curses  at  the  close  of  the  inscription  together  with  their 
consorts.  In  a  number  of  cases,  {e.  g.,  Shamash,  Nergal,  and 
Ishtar)  minor  deities  of  the  same  character  are  added  which  came 
to  be  regarded  as  forms  of  these  deities  or  as  their  attendants; 
and  lastly  some  additional  gods  notably  Tammuz  (under  the  form 
Damu),  his  sister  Geshtin-Anna  (or  belit  seri),  and  the  two  Cassite 
deities  Shukamuna  and  Shumalia.  In  all  forty-seven  gods  and 
goddesses  are  enumerated  which  may,  however,  as  indicated,  be 
reduced  to  a  comparatively  small  number.  See  Delegation  en 
Perse  Memoires,  vol.  vi.,  PI.  9-10  and  pp.  31-39;  Hinke,  op.  cit.f 
pp.  25  and  233-234. 


o 
c/: 


o 
o 
xn 


§ 


Astrology  231 

Ionian  astrology — through  the  mediation  of  the 
Grecian — is  thus  recognised  beyond  reasonable  doubt, ' 
but  the  significant  feature  of  this  dependence  lies  in 
the  circumstance  that  what,  under  the  moulding  of  the 
Greek  scientific  spirit,  became  astronomical  in  charac- 
ter was  adopted  by  the  Greeks  as  a  purely  fanciful 
combination  of  stars  into  groups,  introduced  as  a 
means  of  fixing  more  accurately  the  stations  of  the  sun 
and  planets  in  their  course  along  the  ecliptic,  and  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  enlarging  the  field  of  divinatory 
lore. 

IV 

It  now  behooves  us  to  turn  to  a  description  of  the 
system  devised  by  the  bdru  priests  in  their  endeavour 
to  read  in  the  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and 
in  the  general  phenomena  of  the  heavens,  the  purpose 
and  designs  of  the  gods. 

Although  not  belonging  to  astrology  proper,  yet, 
from  the  Babylonian  point  of  view,  storms,  winds, 
rains,  clouds,  thunder,  and   lightning  convStitute  an 

^  The  detailed  proof  for  the  origin  of  our  signs  of  the  zodiac 
from  Babylonian  astrology  was  first  furnished  by  the  German 
Assyriologist  Peter  Jensen  in  his  elaborate  work,  Kosmologie  der 
Bahylonier  (Strassburg,  1890),  but  the  advance  of  the  last  two 
decades,  due  chiefly  to  the  researches  of  Epping,  Strassmaier, 
and  Kugler,  has  made  portions  of  Jensen's  work  antiquated. 
The  standard  work  for  Babylonian  astronomy  and  cognate  fields 
is  Kugler,  Sternkunde  und  Sterndienst  in  Babel — now  in  course 
of  publication. 


2^2  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

integral  part  of  divination  based  upon  the  phenomena 
of  the  heavens;  and  we  have  seen  that  this  phase  of 
divination,^  like  divination  from  the  movements  and 
position  of  the  sun  and  moon,  represents  an  outcome 
of  the  popular  beliefs  that  naturally  connected  these 
phenomena  with  beings  that  had  their  seats  on  high. 
We  cannot,  in  fact,  separate  the  interpretations  of 
winds,  clouds,  rain,  hail,  thunder,  lightning,  and  even 
earthquakes  from  astrology  proper,  for,  in  the  as- 
trological texts,  Adad,  who,  as  the  god  of  storms,  pre- 
sides over  all  the  violent  manifestations  in  the  heavens 
that  show  their  effect  on  earth,  is  accorded  a  place  by 
the  side  of  Sin,  Shamash,  and  the  gods  identified  with 
the  five  planets,  Marduk,  Ishtar,  Ninib,  Nebo,  and 
Nergal.  These  eight  deities  in  fact  constitute  the 
chief  gods  of  the  perfected  pantheon,  to  which  the 
ancient  triad  Anu,  Enlil,  and  Ea  should  be  added,  to- 
gether with  Ashur  in  Assyria^  as  the  additional  mem- 
ber of  a  conventionalised  group  of  twelve  deities. 

Naturally,  the  phenomena  ascribed  to  Adad  fur- 
nished a  particularly  wide  scope  for  the  astrologer. 
The  character  and  ever-changing  shapes  of  clouds 
were  observed,  whether  massed  together  or  floating 
in  thin  fleecy  strips.  Their  colour  was  noted,  whether 
dark,  yellow,  green,  or  white.  The  number  of  thunder- 
claps, the  place  in  the  heavens  whence  the  sound 
proceeded,  the  month  or  day  or  special  circumstances 

*  See  above,  p.  209.  '  See  above,  p.  123. 


Astrology  233 

when  heard,  were  all  carefully  noted,  as  was  also  the 
quarter  whence  the  lightning  came,  and  the  direction  it 
took,  the  course  of  winds  and  rain,  and  so  on,  without 
end. 

In  studying  the  system  devised  for  the  interpreta- 
tion of  omens,  we  may  take  as  a  point  of  departure 
the  subdivision  dealing  with  the  activity  of  the  god 
Adad.  As  in  liver  divination,  the  general  principles 
were  deduced  from  the  observation  of  events  actually 
following  upon  certain  noteworthy  phenomena  in  the 
heavens.  If,  for  example,  a  battle  was  fought  during 
a  thunderstorm  and  ended  in  the  discomfiture  of  the 
enemy,  the  precise  conditions  under  which  the  battle 
took  place,  the  day  of  the  month,  the  direction  of 
the  wind,  and  the  number  of  thunderclaps  were 
noted.  The  conclusion  was  then  drawn  that,  given 
a  repetition  of  the  circumstances,  the  same  result 
or  at  least  some  favourable  outcome  would  follow. 
This  same  principle  was  applied  to  the  position  of  the 
stm,  moon,  or  any  of  the  planets  at  any  given  mo- 
ment. As  a  necessary  outcome  of  the  theory  that 
whatever  occurred  in  the  heavens  represented  the 
activity  and  co-operation  of  the  gods  in  events  on 
earth,  the  post  hoc  was  equated  with  the  propter  hoc  in 
the  case  of  all  important  or  striking  occurrences, 
directly  affecting  the  general  welfare.  The  con- 
clusion was  inevitable  that  the  phenomenon  itself 
portended    the    events.     Hence,    the    scrupulously 


234  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

careful  observation  of  heavenly  phenomena  yielded 
an  infallible  guide  for  the  most  confident  prediction 
— always  provided  that  the  records  confirmed  an  oc- 
currence in  the  past  when  preceded  by  similar  phe- 
nomena, or  provided  that  in  any  other  way  a  correct 
reading  of  the  sign  could  be  given.  How  was  this 
possible  when  records  or  tradition  were  lacking? 
The  answer  is  the  same  that  was  suggested  in 
regard  to  the  system  of  liver  divination, — it  was  by 
certain  more  or  less  logical  deductions,  and  also  by 
more  or  less  fanciful  association  of  ideas.' 


It  does  not  appear  that  the  Babylonians  and  As- 
syrians advanced  so  far  as  the  mapping  out  of  the 
heavens  to  correspond  with  the  distribution  of  lands, 
mountains,  rivers,  and  seas  on  earth;  though  this 
would  have  been  a  perfectly  logical  extension  of  the 
theory  of  a  preordained  correspondence  between 
heaven  and  earth.  It  was  actually  carried  out, 
however,  by  the  later  Greek  astrologers.^  We  have 
already  seen  that  the  divisions  of  the  ecliptic  were  as- 
sociated with  certain  countries;  certain  divisions  of 
the  moon,  the  left  and  right  sides,  the  upper  and 

^  See  above,  p.  173  seq. 

'  See  Cumont,  La  plusancienne  Geographie  Astrologique  (Klio, 
vol.  ix.,  pp.  263-73). 


Astrology  235 

lower  portions,  were  parcelled  out  in  the  same  way.* 
The  world  was  divided  for  purposes  of  astrology  into 
four  chief  lands  with  which  the  Babylonians  had  come 
into  contact.  Elam  was  the  general  designation  of 
the  east,  Amurru,  or  the  land  of  the  Amorites,  meant 
the  west,  Akkad,  or  Babylonia,  stood  for  the  south, 
and  Subartu,  alternating  with  Guti,  for  the  north. 
The  omission  of  the  later  name,  Ashur,  for  Assyria 
is  important;  it  points  to  the  development  of  the 
astrological  system  prior  to  the  rise  of  the  Assyrian 
empire,  which,  in  fact,  is  not  prominent  until  sometime 
after  the  period  of  Hammurapi.  Subartu  stands  in 
the  conventional  enumeration  for  the  later  Assyria, 
and  the  astrologers  of  that  country  are  careful  enough 
expressly  to  note  this  fact.^  These  four  divisions, 
Elam,  Amurru,  Akkad,  and  Subartu  (with  Guti  as  an 
alternative^)   constituted  the  "four  regions"  of  the 

'  The  right  side  of  the  moon  was  Akkad,  the  left  Elam,  the 
upper  portion  Amurru,  the  lower  portion  Subartu.  See 
further  below,  p.  239. 

'In  an  astrological  report  in  the  days  of  Esarhaddon  (681- 
668  B.C.),  there  appears  the  significant  note  attached  to  an  omen 
about  Subartu:  "We  [i.e.,  the  Assyrians]  are  Subartu."  See 
Thompson's  Reports  of  the  Magicians  and  Astrologers  of  Nineveh 
and  Babylon,  No.  64,  obv.  4. 

3  Guti — a  land  in  the  distant  north;  it  comes  into  contact  at 
an  early  period  with  the  Euphrates  Valley,  and,  centuries  later, 
also  with  Assyria.  The  name  is  therefore  frequently  intro- 
duced as  an  alternative  to  Subartu  and,  indeed,  for  the  later 
periods,  Subartu,  which,  we  have  seen,  was  originally  Assyria,  is 
conventionally  used  for  the  north  and,  therefore,  also  for  lands 


236  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

earth.  Rulers,  like  Naram-Sin,  who  claimed  control 
of  these  sections,  therefore  gave  themselves  the  title 
of  "King  of  the  Four  Regions," — with  the  impHca- 
tion  that  their  empire  was  of  universal  sway.  It  was 
not  necessary  to  map  out  the  heavens  to  correspond 
to  these  four  divisions.  Indeed,  a  larger  margin  was 
allowed  to  the  astrologers  by  not  doing  so;  the  divi- 
sions could  then  be  applied  to  any  of  the  five  planets, 
to  the  constellations,  and  single  stars,  as  well  as  to  the 
sun  and  moon  and  to  the  divisions  of  the  ecliptic. 
Jupiter,  quite  independently  of  his  position  in  the 
heavens  at  any  given  time,  was  regarded  as  the  planet 
of  Akkad  or  Babylonia,  while  Mars,  as  the  hostile  and 
unlucky  planet,  was  assigned  to  the  two  unfriendly 
lands,  Amurru  and  Elam.  Thus,  too,  the  constella- 
tions and  prominent  single  stars  were  apportioned 
among  the  same  four  countries.  We  are  fortunate 
enough  to  possess  lists  wherein  the  planets,  constella- 
tions, and  stars,  arranged  in  groups  of  twelve  to  cor- 
respond to  the  twelve  months  of  the  year,  are  thus 
divided  among  Elam,  Akkad,  Amurru,  and  Subartu.  ^ 
We  have  already  seen  that  the  months  were  in  the 

to  the  north  of  Assyria  (as  well  as  of  Babylonia),  including  Guti 
proper.  The  varying  terminology  in  the  astrological  texts  is  a 
further  indication  of  the  different  periods  from  which  the  official 
Anu-Enlil  series  is  put  together. 

^  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  Part  XXVI.,  Plates  41  and  44,  col.  v., 
8-1 1.  The  Hst  can  be  almost  completed  from  indications  and 
references  in  the  Anu-Enlil  series. 


I 

I 


Astrology  237 

same  way  distributed  among  these  four  countries, 
and  the  system  was  even  extended  to  days,  so  that 
each  day  of  the  month  was  referred  to  one  coun- 
try or  another.^  It  was  thus  possible  to  connect  al- 
most every  phenomenon  in  the  heavens  with  some 
country.  This  was  more  particularly  important  in  the 
case  of  unfavourable  omens,  like  eclipses,  or  obscura- 
tions of  the  sun  or  moon  from  atmospheric  causes, 
where  the  appHcation  of  the  interpretation  would 
thus  vary  according  to  the  month  and  the  day  on  which 
the  phenomenon  was  observed.  The  scope  thus  given 
to  the  prognostications  of  the  bdril  priests  was  ex- 
tended still  further  by  connecting  the  months  with 
the  gods  as  well  as  with  countries,  and,  according  to 
the  character  and  nature  of  each  deity,  an  appropriate 
interpretation  was  proposed  for  the  many  cases  in 
which  no  record  existed  of  any  event  of  special  signifi- 
cance following  upon  some  sign  in  the  heavens.  Thus, 
the  first  month  was  assigned  to  Anu  and  Enlil,  the 
second  to  Ea,  the  third  to  vSin,  the  fourth  to  Ninib, 
the  fifth  to  Ningishzida  (also  a  solar  deity  and  a  god 
of  vegetation),  the  sixth  to  Ishtar,  the  seventh  to 
Shamash,  the  eighth  to  Marduk,  the  ninth  to  Nergal, 
the  tenth  to  the  messenger  of  Anu  and  Ishtar — pre- 


I  The  ist,  5th,  9th,  13th  days,  etc.,  to  Akkad,  the  2d,  6th, 
loth,  14th  days,  etc.,  to  Elam,  the  3d,  7th,  nth,  15th,  etc., 
to  Amurru,  the  4th,  8th,  12th,  i6th,  etc.,  to  Subartu.  See 
above,  p.   219,  for  the  apportionment  of  the  months 


238  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

sumably  Nebo, — the  eleventh  to  Adad,  the  twelfth 
to  Sibitti,  the  intercalated,  so-called  second  Adar  to 
Ashur,  the  head  of  the  Assyrian  pantheon. ' 

The  factors  involved  in  such  associations  are  vari- 
ous. To  discuss  them  in  detail  would  take  us  too 
far  afield;  it  is  sufficient  to  call  attention  to  the 
''mythological"  considerations  involved.  The  sixth 
month — marking  the  division  of  the  year  into  two 
halves — is  connected  with  the  goddess  Ishtar,  who 
spends  half  of  the  year  on  earth  and  half  in  the  nether 
world.  Climatic  conditions  underlie  the  association 
of  the  eleventh  month — the  height  of  the  wintry  and 
stormy  season — with  the  god  of  storms  and  rains, 
Adad.  Similar  associations  are  to  be  found  in  the 
famous  Babylonian  epic  known  as  the  adventures  of 
Gilgamesh,  which  was  recounted  on  twelve  tablets, 
each  tablet  being  made  to  correspond  to  a  certain 
month  of  the  year.  The  sixth  tablet  narrates  the 
descent  of  Ishtar  to  the  lower  world — symbolising 
the  end  of  the  summer  season  of  growth  and  of  vegeta- 
tion; the  story  of  the  great  Deluge  that  swept  away 
mankind  is  recounted  in  the  eleventh  tablet — cor- 
responding, therefore,  to  the  month  associated  with 
Adad.     Besides  the  division  of  the  four  sides  of  the 


'Rawlinson,  iv.,  (2d  ed.),  PI-  32.  The  addition  of  Ashur 
points  to  the  late  redaction  of  the  list  by  Assyrian  scribes,  but 
the  other  associations,  no  doubt,  rest  upon  older  Babylonian 
traditions. 


1 


Astrology  239 

moon — right  and  left,  upper  and  lower — among  the 
four  regions  of  the  world,  as  above  pointed  out,  we 
find  a  special  distribution  when  the  moon  was  cres- 
cent, the  right  horn  being  assigned  to  Amurru  or  the 
west  land  and  the  left  horn  to  Elam  or  the  east. 
In  this  case,  orientation,  which  in  Babylonia  was  from 
the  south,  is  clearly  the  controlling  factor.  Facing 
the  south,  the  west  is  to  the  right  and  the  east  to  the 
left,  whereas  when  the  full  moon  is  divided  among  the 
four  countries,  the  assigning  of  Akkad  to  the  right 
side  and  of  Elam  to  the  left  is  due  to  the  natural  as- 
sociation of  ideas  between  right  and  lucky,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  left  and  unlucky  on  the  other,  which,  we 
have  seen,  played  so  important  a  part  in  liver  divina- 
tion. Facing  Akkad,  as  the  land  of  the  south,  the 
lower  portion  of  the  moon  would  again  be  the  left 
and  therefore  unlucky  side,  and  the  upper  portion  the 
right  or  lucky  side,  which  leads  to  the  former  being 
associated  with  the  land  of  the  enemy,  Amurru, 
and  the  latter  with  Assyria — replaced,  whenever  it 
suited  the  purpose  of  the  astrologers,  by  Subartu.  In 
this  and  in  divers  other  ways  the  association  of  ideas 
becomes  perhaps  the  most  important  factor  in  the 
development  of  the  system  of  interpretation,  by  the 
side,  or  in  default,  of  the  direct  observation  of  events 
following  upon  certain  phenomena  in  the  heavens. 
This  latter  phase  must,  never,  of  course,  be  lost  sight 
of,    and    especially  when   extraordinary   phenomena 


240  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

appeared  in  the  skies,  such  as  a  thunderclap  out  of  a 
clear  sky,  rain  during  the  dry  season  (in  the  4th,  5th, 
and  6th  months) ,  an  apparently  belated  new-moon  or 
full-moon,  and,  above  all,  eclipses  of  the  sun  or  moon, 
or  obscurations  of  either  of  these  heavenly  lamps.  All 
such  occurrences  would  make  a  deep  impression,  and 
special  care  would  be  taken  to  note  every  event  that 
followed,  in  the  belief  that  all  the  signs  here  instanced 
being  unfavourable,  whatever  misfortune  or  unlucky 
occurrence  happened,  it  was  a  direct  consequence  of 
the  unfavourable  sign  in  the  heavens,  or  was  at  all 
events  prognosticated  by  the  sign. 


VI 


The  events  would  naturally  be  of  general  public 
import.  These  may  be  chiefly  enumerated  as  the  re- 
sult of  a  military  expedition,  condition  of  the  crops, 
pestilence,  invasion  of  the  enemy,  disturbances  within 
the  country,  a  revolt,  an  uprising  in  the  royal  house- 
hold, or  any  untoward  event  at  court,  such  as  the 
sickness  or  death  of  the  monarch,  or  of  a  member  of 
his  house — always  indicative  of  the  anger  of  the  gods, 
— a  miscarriage  of  the  queen,  a  mishap  to  the  crown- 
prince,  and  the  like. 

Thus  as  in  the  case  of  hepatoscopy,  the  point  of 
view  was  always  directed  to  the  general  welfare. 
Private  affairs  hardly  entered  into  consideration ;  not 


Astrology  241 

for  such  were  the  stars  to  be  read.  The  bar  it 
priests  did  not  painfully  search  the  heavens  to  find  out 
under  what  special  conjunction  of  planets  a  humble 
subject  was  born,  or  try  to  determine  the  fate  in  store 
for  him.  This  aspect  of  astrology  is  conspicuous  by 
its  absence.  And  when  astronomy  devoted  itself 
to  the  service  of  the  king  or  to  a  member  of  his  house- 
hold— for  the  interpretations  in  the  astrological  texts 
often  bear  upon  events  in  the  palace  or  at  the  court, — 
it  is  due^  to  the  peculiar  position  held  by  the  king 
throughout  antiquity.  He  was  regarded  either  as  the 
direct  representative  of  the  deity  on  earth,  or  as 
standing  in  a  peculiarly  close  relationship  to  the  gods ; 
wherefore  should  he  act  in  any  way  to  provoke  the 
gods  to  anger,  his  punishment  would  affect  the  entire 
population.  On  the  other  hand,  the  favour  of  the 
gods  toward  the  king  ensures  victory  in  arms,  the 
repulse  of  an  enemy,  abundant  crops,  and  the  bless- 
ings of  health  and  happiness.  In  return,  the  kings 
had  to  exercise  special  precautions  in  all  their  acts — 
official  and  otherwise.  A  misstep,  a  failure  to  observe 
certain  rites,  a  neglect  of  any  prescribed  ceremo- 
nial, or  a  distinctly  ethical  misdemeanour,  an  act  of 
injustice  or  cruelty,  might  be  fraught  with  the  most 
dire  results.  If  a  catastrophe  or  misfortune  affect- 
ing the  general  welfare  occurred,  it  was  taken  as  a 
sign  of  divine  displeasure.  In  such  cases,  expiatory 
^  See  above,  p.  177 
16 


242  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

rites  were  prescribed  for  the  king,  and  often  for  the 
members  of  his  household  also,  for  fear  that  the  anger 
had  been  evoked  by  some  misdeed  of  theirs,  albeit  an 
unintentional  one. 

This  trait  of  solidarity  of  king  and  people  and  gods, 
as  opposed  to  individualism,  marks  the  Babylonian- 
Assyrian  religion  in  all  its  phases.  It  is  by  no  acci- 
dent that  the  hymns  and  prayers  and  penitential 
appeals  and  ritualistic  directions  are  almost  universally 
engrossed  with  the  relation  of  the  rulers  to  the  gods. 
The  prayers  to  Enlil,  Marduk,  Sin,  Shamash,  Nebo, 
Ninib,  or  Ishtar  are  generally  royal  appeals;  the 
hymns  voice  the  aspirations  of  the  kings,  while  the 
penitents,  whose  humiliation  before  the  divine  throne 
is  portrayed  in  such  effective  manner,  in  the  peniten- 
tial outpourings,^  are  in  almost  all  instances  the  rulers 
themselves.  To  be  sure,  this  condition  is  in  a  measure 
due  to  the  official  character  of  the  religious  material  in 
the  library  of  Ashurbanapal,  and  yet  this  material 
taken  directly  from  the  archives  of  the  temples  fairly 
reflects  the  general  features  of  the  religion.  Even  in 
the  incantations,  the  formulas  and  observances  pre- 
scribed for  exorcising  mischievous  demons  (the  causes 
of  all  the  ills  of  existence,  and  of  the  unpleasant  acci- 
dents of  every  day  life) ,  we  receive  the  impression  that 
the  collections  were  largely  formed  to  relieve  the 
kings  of  their  troubles;    though,  no    doubt,   in   this 

^  See  p.  320  5eg. 


Astrology  243 

branch  of  the  religious  literature,  the  needs  of  the 
individual  received  a  more  considerable  share  of  at- 
tention. Thus  also,  signs  that  directly  affected  the 
individual,  such  as  dreams,  a  serpent  in  one's  path, 
peculiar  actions  of  dogs  in  a  man's  house,  birth  of 
monstrosities  among  domestic  animals' — all  illustrate 
the  "lay"  featiu-es  of  the  cult,  but  with  these 
exceptions,  the  cult  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  as  a 
whole,  partook  of  a  character  official  rather  than 
individual. 

What  is  thus  true  of  other  fields,  is  true  of  astrology. 
An  explanation  is  thus  found  for  the  fundamental  fact 
that  the  reading  of  stars  by  the  Babylonians  and  As- 
syrians had  no  concern  with  the  individual.  What 
to  us  would  seem  to  be  the  essence  of  astrology, — 
the  determination  of  the  conditions  under  which  the 
individual  was  born,  and  the  prediction  from  these 
conditions  of  the  traits  that  would  be  his,  and  of  the 
fate  in  store  for  him, — is  not  in  Baby  Ionian- Assyrian 
astrology.  This  aspect  represents  the  contribution 
of  Greek  astrologers,  when  they  carried  Babylonian 
astrology  into  their  own  lives.  To  the  Greeks,  and 
afterwards  to  the  Romans,  genet hlialogy, — as  the  sci- 
ence, dealing  with  the  conditions  under  which  a  man 
is  born,  was  called, — became  the  alpha  and  omega  of 
astrology.     The  reason  why  it  was  left  to  the  Greeks 

^  Examples  will  be  found  in  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.), 
Parts  16-18. 


244    Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

to  add  this  important  modification  to  the  borrowed 
product  is  not  far  to  seek.  In  the  religion  as  in  the 
culture  of  the  Greeks,  the  individual  was  more  than 
merely  an  infinitesimal  part  of  the  whole.  The  entire 
spirit  of  Greek  civilisation  was  individualism,  and  the 
spirit  of  its  institutions  correspondingly  democratic. 
The  city,  to  be  sure,  was  regarded  as  an  ideal  unity, 
but  the  very  emphasis  laid  upon  citizenship  as  a 
condition  to  participation  in  Greek  life  is  an  indication 
that  the  individual  was  not  lost  sight  of  in  the  welfare 
of  the  whole.  The  individual  in  Greece  was  also,  a 
part  of  the  whole,  but  an  integral  part,  and  one  that 
had  an  existence  also  apart  from  the  whole.  The  re- 
lation between  the  individual  and  the  gods  was  of 
a  personal  nature.  The  Greek  gods  concern  them- 
selves with  individuals;  whereas  among  the  Baby- 
lonians and  Assyrians  the  welfare  of  the  community 
and  of  the  country  as  a  whole  was  primarily  the 
function  ascribed  to  the  gods.  The  latter  stood  aloof 
from  the  petty  concerns  of  individuals  and  relegated 
these  to  the  inferior  Powers,  to  the  demons  and 
spirits,  and  to  the  sorcerers  and  witches  in  whom  some 
evil  spirit  was  supposed  to  have  taken  up  his  abode. 


VII 


Returning  to  the  astrological  system  of  the  Baby- 
lonians and  Assyrians,  it  still  remains  for  us  to  indi- 


Astrology  245 

cate  the  final  form  given  to  this  system.  The  notes 
and  entries  made  by  the  priests  of  significant  events 
following  upon  noteworthy  phenomena  in  the  heavens, 
grew  in  the  course  of  time  to  large  proportions. 
Further  enlarged  by  the  settling  of  certain  criteria  for 
reading  the  stars  on  the  basis  of  a  logical  or  arbitrary 
association  of  ideas,  and  by  the  introduction  of  other 
factors,  these  memoranda  became  an  extensive  series 
in  which  the  signs  were  entered  in  a  more  or  less  sys- 
tematic manner  and  the  interpretations  added.  It 
did  not  follow  that,  because  a  certain  event  occurred 
subsequent  to  some  phenomenon  in  the  moon,  sun,  or 
in  one  of  the  planets  or  in  some  constellation,  the 
same  conditions  would  always  produce  the  same  re- 
sult. As  was  stated  above,  the  important  feature  of 
the  interpretation  given  to  a  sign  was  its  general 
character  as  favourable  or  unfavourable.  The  es- 
sential point  was  whether  the  sign  was  a  good  or  a 
bad  omen.  Hence,  in  many  instances  we  find  alter- 
native interpretations  given  in  the  astrological  col- 
lections— either  good  crops  or  recovery  from  disease, 
long  reign  of  the  king  or  success  in  war,  uprising  in 
the  land  or  low  prices  in  the  markets, — always  regarded 
as  an  ill  omen, — peace,  and  grace  of  the  gods  or 
abundant  rains,  diminution  of  the  land  or  insufficient 
flooding  of  the  canals  during  the  rainy  season,  in- 
vasion of  locusts  or  disastrous  floods.  The  number 
of  such  alternative  interpretations  was  not  limited  to 


246  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

two.  Often  we  find  three  or  four  and  as  many  as 
six  contingencies.  In  such  cases  it  seems  simplest  to 
suppose  that  these  alternatives  represent  interpreta- 
tions taken  from  various  sources,  and  combined  by  the 
priests  in  their  collections,  whereof  the  value  and 
trustworthiness  would  be  increased  by  embodying  as 
far  as  possible  the  entire  experience  and  wisdom  of  the 
past  for  guidance  in  the  present. 

As  in  the  case  of  "Hver"  divination,  there  are 
indications  that  various  collections  of  astrological 
omens  were  compiled  in  the  temples  of  the  south  and 
north,  through  the  steady  growth  of  the  observations 
and  deductions  of  the  bdru  priests ;  there  was  also  one 
extensive  series  covering  the  entire  field  of  astrology, 
which  became,  as  it  were,  the  official  Handbook  and 
main  source.  From  the  opening  words  it  was  known 
as  the  Enuma  Anu-Enlil  series  {i.e.,  "When  Anu, 
Enlil,"  etc.),  and  probably  comprised  as  many  as  one 
hundred  tablets,  of  which,  however,  only  a  portion  has 
been  recovered  from  the  great  royal  library  at  Nin- 
eveh; the  tablets  and  fragments  of  tablets  already 
preserved  represent  different  editions  or  recensions 
of  the  text.  Fortunately,  the  beginning  of  the  series 
is  extant,  both  in  the  original  "Sumerian,"  and  in  a 
somewhat  free  translation  into  Semitic  Babylonian.  It 
expounds  a  piece  of  cosmological  tradition  as  follows: 

When  Anu,  Enlil,  and  Ea,  the  great  gods,  in  their  council  en- 
trusted the  great  laws  of  heaven  and  earth  to  the  shining  [?] 


Astrology  247 

moon,  they  caused  the  new-moon  crescent  to  be  renewed  [sc. 
every  month],  created  the  month,  fixed  the  signs  of  heaven  and 
earth  so  that  it  [i.e.,  the  moon]  might  shine  brilliantly  in  heaven 
[and]  be  bright  in  heaven.  ^ 

Anu,  Enlil,  and  Ea,  it  will  be  recalled,  represent  in 
theory  the  triad  of  divine  powers,  who  precede  the 
creation  of  the  active  gods.  They  stand,  as  it  were, 
above  and  behind  "the  great  gods,"  and,  just  as  the 
latter  entrust  the  smaller  affairs  of  the  world — the  fate 
of  individuals — to  the  lower  order  of  Powers,  to  the 
demons  and  spirits,  so  Anu,  Enlil,  and  Ea  delegate  to 
the  great  gods  the  general  affairs  of  mankind  as  a 
whole.  The  opening  lines  of  the  series  are  evidently 
quoted  from  a  poetical  composition,  setting  forth  the 
order  of  creation.  In  the  Sumerian  original,  which 
belongs  to  a  very  high  antiquity,  the  moon  is  signifi- 
cantly the  first  and  most  important  of  the  "great 
gods."  A  reference  to  the  sun — which  is  only  in  the 
Semitic  translation — is  presumably  a  later  addition. 
The  precedence  hereby  accorded  to  the  moon  re- 
veals the  pre-eminent  position  occupied  by  the  moon 
in  Babylonian- Assyrian  astrology,  and  the  quotation 
from  the  old  cosmological  poem  was  probably  chosen 
as  a  befitting  introduction  to  the  exposition  of  omens, 
derived  from  observations  of  the  moon.     The  system 

^  The  free  "  Babylonian  "  translation  renders  the  closing  phrases 
as  follows:  "That  men  may  see  the  sun  within  the  gate  of  heaven 
and  earth  regularly  shine  forth." 


248  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  the  bdrtl  priests  was  thus  justified  by  the  doc- 
trine that  the  ancient  triad  in  council  deputed  the 
government  of  the  universe  primarily  to  the  moon, 
through  which  the  signs  to  be  observed  in  the  heavens 
and  on  earth  were  interpreted. 

There  are  distinct  indications,  throughout  the  re- 
covered portions  of  the  series,  of  the  existence  of  a 
very  old  Sumerian  text,  which,  at  a  period  subse- 
quent to  Hammurapi,  was  given  a  Semitic  form,  and, 
in  the  course  of  this  process,  modified  and  enlarged. 
Equally  strong  is  the  evidence  for  the  composite 
character  of  the  series,  whereof  the  component  parts, 
as  has  already  been  indicated,  belong  to  different 
periods  and,  as  it  would  appear,  embody  other  as- 
trological collections  that  were  taken  over  in  whole 
or  in  part  to  form  the  great  official  guide  for  the 
priests.  In  short,  the  series  is  a  compilation,  just  as 
are  the  Pentateuch  and  the  historical  books  of  the 
Old  Testament.  The  Gilgamesh  epic  as  well  as  the 
incantation  rituals  and  other  specimens  of  Babylo- 
nian Assyrian  literature  reveal  this  same  practice  of 
compilation,  which  is,  in  fact,  a  characteristic  trait  of 
literary  composition  among  the  Semites  at  all  times. 
The  great  Arabic  historians  of  the  four  centuries 
after  Mohammed  are,  in  the  same  way,  essentially 
compilers  and  furnish  a  proof  of  the  continuance  of  the 
same  literary  process,  notwithstanding  the  profound 
changes  wrought  by  the  two  millenniums  between  the 


Astrology  249 

old  Babylonian  literature  and  the  intellectual  activity 
of  Mohammedan  writers. 

Our  fragments  of  the  Anu-Enlil  series  enable  us  to 
divide  it  into  five  groups;  the  first  deals  with  omens 
derived  from  the  moon;  the  second  with  such  as  deal 
with  phenomena  of  the  sun;  the  third  with  those  of 
the  remaining  five  planets;  the  fourth  with  constella- 
tions, stars,  and  comets,  and  the  fifth  with  the  various 
manifestations  of  the  activity  of  Adad,  including 
storms,  winds,  rains,  thunderbolts,  and  lightning.  In 
making  this  division  it  is  not  claimed  that  the  tablets 
of  the  series  were  actually  divided  in  this  way.  The 
Babylonian  scribes  and  compilers  were,  probably,  not 
quite  so  systematic;  but  there  is  sufficient  internal 
evidence  that  the  phenomena  connected  with  the  moon 
were  for  convenient  reference  grouped  together.  In 
the  same  way,  the  phenomena  of  the  sun  and  those 
of  each  of  the  planets  were  dealt  with  in  a  series  of 
tablets  that  aimed  to  exhaust  all  possible  contingencies 
in  connection  with  the  movements  and  position  of  the 
heavenly  bodies.  The  period  of  the  final  redaction 
of  the  series  can  be  only  approximately  determined. 
Historical  references  in  connection  with  the  omens 
justify  the  conclusion  that  portions  of  the  Sumerian 
original  may  be  as  old  as  the  days  of  Sargon  (circa 
2500  B.C.),  but  the  greater  portion  is  certainly  much 
later,  while  for  the  final  redaction  we  must  pass  far 
below  the  period    of   Hammurapi.     Additions  to  it 


250  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

were  constantly  being  made,  and  no  doubt  every  scribe 
tried  to  improve  upon  his  predecessors  by  adding 
more  omens  with  their  interpretations.  Even  the 
Assyrian  scribes,  in  copying  the  "Babylonian" 
originals,  did  not  hesitate  to  make  additions  of  this 
kind;  in  a  very  general  way  we  may  say,  however, 
that  about  1500  B.C.,  the  Anu-Enlil  series  was  already 
in  existence  as  the  official  astrological  handbook. 
We  are  also  safe  in  fixing  upon  the  city  of  Babylon 
and  its  neighbour  Borsippa — the  two  representative 
centres  of  the  Marduk  and  Nebo  cults — as  the  district 
in  which  the  series  was  compiled  and  first  recognised 
as  the  official  authority. 

The  proof  that  the  Anu-Enlil  series  was  official,  and 
consiilted  by  the  priests  of  Marduk  and  Nebo  on  all 
occasions,  and  that  through  the  influence  of  the  Mar- 
duk cult  it  had  become  the  standard  authority 
throughout  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  is  furnished  by 
the  official  reports  and  letters  of  the  astrologers  at  the 
Assyrian  court.  These  reports,  of  which  we  have 
several  hundred,  consist  of  two  sections,  one  con- 
taining the  description  of  the  phenomena,  the  other 
supplying  the  interpretations  in  the  form  of  quota- 
tions from  a  collection  of  astrological  omens.  We  now 
have  the  source  of  many  of  these  quotations  from  the 
Anu-Enlil  series.  In  like  manner,  in  letters  of  As- 
syrian officials  to  their  royal  masters,  astrological 
omens  are  not  infrequently  embodied,     and  these, 


Astrology  251 

too,  we  can  trace  back  to  the  Anu-Enlil  series.^ 
Moreover,  the  series  itself  is  directly  referred  to  both 
in  the  reports  and  in  the  letters,  being  either  quoted 
by  its  title  or  designated  simply  as  "the  Series."  It 
appears,  therefore,  that  when  an  inquiry  was  put  to 
the  astrologers  as  to  the  meaning  of  a  particiilar  sign 
in  the  heavens,  the  Anu-Enlil  series  was  forthwith  con- 
sulted, the  sign  in  question  hunted  up,  and  copied 
verbatim,  together  with  the  interpretation  or  the  alter- 
native interpretations,  and  forwarded  to  the  kings 
with  any  needful  explanations. 

VIII 

Despite  the  elaborate  system,  however,  developed 
by  the  Babylonian  priests,  the  decline  of  astrology 
sets  in  toward  the  close  of  the  Assyrian  period.  It  is 
significant  that  in  the  inscriptions  of  the  rulers  of  the 
neo-Babylonian  dynasty, — Nabopolassar  to  Nabon- 
nedos,  625  to  539  B.C., — we  find  no  direct  references 
to  astrological  omens.  The  gods  reveal  themselves 
in  dreams  and  by  the  liver  of  sacrificial  animals,  but 
there  are  no  omens  derived  from  phenomena  in  the 
heavens.  This  may  be,  of  course,  accidental,  and 
yet,  considering  that  this  period  marks  the  beginning 
of  a  noteworthy  advance  in  astronomy,  it  would 
rather  seem  that  the  rise  of  genuine  astronomical 

^  See  numerous  examples  in  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.), 
ii.,  pp.  458-692, 


252  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

science  gave  the  death-blow  to  ,the  belief  in  the  re- 
velations of  stars.  The  advent  of  the  Persians,  who 
put  an  end  to  the  neo-Babylonian  empire  in  539  B.C., 
was  followed,  as  so  frequently  happens  with  the 
coming  of  a  great  conqueror,  by  an  intellectual  im- 
pulse. In  contrast  with  the  Babylonian  religion  and 
cult,  (so  full  of  survivals  from  the  animistic  stage), 
Zoroastrianism  or  Mazdeism,  brought  into  Baby- 
lonia by  the  Persian  rulers,  was  rationalistic  in  the  ex- 
treme. Instead  of  a  multiplicity  of  divine  Powers, 
we  have  one  great  spirit  presiding  over  the  universe, 
the  creator  of  everything,  whose  power  was  held  to  be 
limited  only  by  the  existence  at  his  side  of  a  great 
power  of  evil,  Ahriman,  who  thwarted  the  efforts  of 
Ahura- Mazda  until,  after  the  completion  of  certain 
cycles,  the  good  spirit  would  finally  triumph  over 
Ahriman  and  reign  supreme.  We  may  be  permitted 
to  suppose  also  that  contact  with  the  Hebrews,  who 
under  the  influence  of  their  prophets  had  advanced 
to  a  monotheistic  conception  of  the  universe,  was  a 
factor  in  leading  the  choicer  spirits  of  the  Babylonians 
to  a  clearer  recognition  of  a  universal  divine  law.  A 
third  factor  destined  to  work  still  more  profound 
changes  throughout  the  ancient  Orient  was  the  con- 
tact with  Greek  culttue  and  Greek  modes  of  thought. 
Greek  philosophy  rested  even  more  firmly  than  He- 
brew monotheism  on  the  theory  of  the  sway  of  in- 
exorable law  in  nature. 


Astrology  253 

Thus,  Persian,  Hebrew,  and  Greek  influences  acted 
as  disintegrating  factors  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria, 
leading  to  a  general  decline  in  time-honoured  beliefs, 
and,  more  particularly,  to  a  diminution  of  faith  in  the 
gods.  Astrology,  along  with  other  superstitions,  was 
doomed  the  moment  it  was  recognised  that  what- 
soever occurred  in  the  heavens,  even  including  all 
unusual  phenomena,  was  the  result  of  law — eternal 
and  unchanging  law.  In  place  of  astrology,  we  see, 
therefore,  a  genuine  science  coming  to  the  fore,  which, 
starting  from  the  axiom  of  regularity  in  the  universe, 
set  out  to  find  the  laws  underlying  the  phenomena  of 
the  heavens.  In  the  three  centuries  following  the 
Persian  occupation  of  the  land  we  find  the  Babylonian 
priests  exchanging  their  former  profession  as  diviners 
for  that  of  astronomers.  They  engage  in  elaborate 
calculations  of  the  movements  of  moon  and  sun. 
They  prepare  tables  of  the  movements  of  the  planets 
in  their  orbits,  with  exact  calendars  for  extensive 
periods  of  the  heHacal  rise  and  setting  of  the  same; 
they  calculate  the  duration  of  their  forward  move- 
ment, the  hour  of  culmination,  and  the  beginning  of 
the  retrograde  movement.  The  yearly  calendar  is 
regulated  with  more  scientific'  precision;  and  even 
though  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  echpses  of  the 
sun  and  moon  were,  in  common  with  all  other  heavenly 
phenomena,  subject  to  law  did  not  lead  in  Babylonia 
to  the  discovery  of  a  true  theory  of  ecHpses,  still  the 


254   Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

blasting  of  the  belief  that  eclipses  were  symptomatic  of 
the  anger  of  the  gods  shook  the  very  foundations  of 
astrology.  If  the  signs  in  the  heavens  were  due  to 
immutable  laws,  then  the  study  of  these  signs  could 
no  longer  serve  to  determine  what  the  gods  were  pur- 
posing to  do  on  earth.  The  immediate  result  of  this 
progress  toward  a  genuine  astronomical  science  was 
not  to  bring  about  an  era  of  skepticism  in  regard  to 
the  existence  of  the  gods,  but  only  to  overthrow  the 
basis  on  which  astrology  rested.  If  the  heavens 
merely  revealed  the  workings  of  regular  laws,  brook- 
ing no  exceptions  and  proceeding  independently  of 
what  happened  on  earth,  then  the  function  of  the  as- 
trologer ceased.  The  connecting  link  between  heaven 
and  earth  was  snapped  through  the  recognition  of  law 
in  the  universe,  over  which  even  the  gods  had  no 
control. 

Astronomy  versus  Astrology  marks  the  beginning  of 
the  conflict  between  Science  and  Religion  in  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria,  which,  as  in  all  subsequent  phases 
of  that  conflict  elsewhere,  could  have  only  one  out- 
come,— the  triumph  of  Science.  Astrology,  we  have 
seen,  started  out  as  an  expression  of  the  science  of  the 
day.  Dethroned  from  that  position,  it  became,  in  the 
literal  sense  of  the  word,  a  superstition,  a  siirvival  of 
an  intellectual  phase  that  had  been  outgrown. 

Strange  to  say,  however,  the  rise  of  astronomy  and 
the  decline  of  astrology  in  Babylonia  were  coincident 


Astrology  255 

with  the  introduction  of  astrology  into  the  lands 
swayed  by  Greek  culture.  The  two  movements  are 
connected.  Whereas  astronomy  began  among  the 
Greeks  long  before  their  contact  with  the  East,  it 
yet  received  a  strong  impulse,  as  did  other  sciences, 
through  the  new  era  inaugurated  by  Alexander  the 
Great,  and  marked  by  the  meeting  of  Orient  and  Oc- 
cident. Several  centuries,  however,  before  the  days 
of  Alexander  the  Greeks  had  begun  to  cultivate  the 
study  of  the  heavens,  not  for  purposes  of  divination 
but  prompted  by  a  scientific  spirit  as  an  intellectual 
discipline  that  might  help  them  to  solve  the  mysteries 
of  the  universe.  The  tradition  recorded  by  Herodotus' 
that  Thales  discovered  the  law  of  eclipses  rests  on  an 
uncertain  foundation;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
certain  that  by  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  B.C., 
the  Greek  astronomers  had  made  great  advances  in 
the  study  of  heavenly  movements.  Nor  is  there  any 
reason  to  question  that,  in  return  for  the  impulse 
that  contact  with  the  Orient  gave  to  the  Greek  mind, 
the  Greeks  imparted  their  scientific  view  of  the  uni- 
verse to  the  East.  They  became  the  teachers  of  the 
East  in  astronomy  as  in  medicine  and  other  sciences, 
and  the  credit  of  having  discovered  the  law  of  the  pre- 
cession of  the  equinoxes  belongs  to  Hipparchus,  the 
Greek  astronomer,  who  announced  this  important 
theory  about  the  year  130  B.C.  On  the  other  hand, 
'  Book  I.,  §  74. 


256  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

and  in  return  for  improved  methods  of  astronomical 
calculation,  which,  it  may  be  assumed,  contact  with 
Greek  science  also  gave  to  the  Babylonian  astronomers, 
the  Greeks  accepted  from  the  Babylonians  the  names 
of  the  constellations  of  the  ecliptic;  but  in  the  case 
of  the  planets,  they  substituted  for  the  Babylonian 
gods  the  corresponding  deities  of  their  own  pantheon. 
More  than  this,  they  actually  adopted  from  the  Baby- 
lonians the  system  of  astrology  and  grafted  it  on  their 
own  astronomical  science.  We  have  the  evidence  of 
Vitruvius,  ^  and  others,  to  the  effect  that  Berosus  the 
"Chaldean"  priest,  a  contemporary  of  Alexander  the 
Great,  settled  in  the  island  of  Cos  (the  home  of  Hip- 
pocrates), and  taught  astrology  to  a  large  number  of 
students  who  were  attracted  by  the  novelty  of  the 
subject.  Whereas  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria  we  have 
astrology  first  and  astronomy  afterwards,  in  Greece 
we  have  the  sequence  reversed — astronomy  first  and 
astrology  afterwards. 

How  was  it  possible  for  the  Greek  scientific  spirit 
to  affix  a  pseudo-science  to  a  genuine  one?  The 
answer  to  this  obvious  question  is  near  at  hand.  It 
has  been  already^  pointed  out  that  the  casting  of  an 
individual  horoscope  was  the  important  modification 
introduced  by  the  Greeks  in  adopting  the  Babylonian 
astrology.  By  this  step  an  entirely  different  aspect 
was  given  to  astrology,  and  above  all,  a  much  more 

^  Vitruvius,  de  Architectura,  ix.,  6.  '  See  above,  p.  243. 


Astrology  257 

scientific  appearance.  It  was  not  merely  the  in- 
dividualist spirit  of  Greek  civilisation  that  led  the 
Greeks  to  make  an  attempt  to  read  in  the  stars  the 
fate  of  the  individual,  but  the  current  doctrine  of  pre- 
ordained fate,  which  takes  so  large  a  share  in  the  Greek 
religion,  and  was  therein  an  important  factor.  Thanks 
to  this  doctrine,  the  harmonious  combination  of  Greek 
astronomy  and  Babylonian  astrology  was  rendered 
possible.  A  connecting  link  between  the  individual 
and  the  movements  in  the  heavens  was  found  in  an 
element  which  they  shared  in  common.  Both  man 
and  stars  moved  in  obedience  to  forces  from  which 
there  was  no  escape.  An  inexorable  law  controlling 
the  planets  corresponded  to  an  equally  inexorable  fate 
ordained  for  every  individual  from  his  birth.  Man 
was  a  part  of  nature  and  subject  to  its  laws.  The 
thought  could  therefore  arise  that,  if  the  conditions  in 
the  heavens  were  studied  under  which  a  man  was 
born,  that  man's  future  could  be  determined  in  ac- 
cord with  the  beliefs  associated  with  the  position  of 
the  planets  rising  or  visible  at  the  time  of  birth  or, 
according  to  other  views,  at  the  time  of  conception.^ 
These  views  take  us  back  directly  to  the  system 
of  astrology  developed  by  Babylonian  bdrtl  priests. 
The  basis  on  which  the  modified  Greek  system  rests  is 
likewise  the  same  that  we  have  observed  in  Babylonia 
■ — a  correspondence  between  heaven  and  earth,  but 
»  Bouch6-Leclercq,  LAstrologie  Grecque,  p.  373  seq, 
17 


258  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

with  this  important  difference,  that  instead  of  the 
caprice  of  gods  we  have  unalterable  fate  controlling 
the  entire  universe — the  movements  of  the  heavens 
and  the  life  of  the  individual  alike. 

The  recognition  of  law  in  the  heavens,  which  event- 
ually put  an  end  to  astrology  in  Babylonia,  was  the 
very  factor  that  gave  to  the  transplanted  system  a 
new  hold  among  the  Greeks.  Hence  the  harmonious 
combination  of  astronomy  and  astrology  which  has 
been  maintained  from  the  days  of  Greek  civilisation, 
through  the  Middle  Ages,  and  down  to  the  threshold  of 
modern  science.  Wherever  Greek  philosophy  wan- 
dered, Greek  astronomy,  like  Greek  medicine,  also 
went,  and  with  Greek  astronomy  went  a  modified 
astrological  system  of  Babylonia.  Astronomy  and 
astrology  became  inseparable  twin  sciences.  The 
two  became  blended — presenting  merely  two  aspects 
of  one  and  the  same  object.  The  study  of  the  heavens 
was  designated  "natural  astrology";  the  application 
of  the  study  in  casting  the  horoscopes  was  called 
"judicial  astrology."  If  all  the  great  astronomers  of 
Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages — men  like  Coperni- 
cus and  Galileo — were  also  astrologers,  it  was  due  to 
this  harmonious  combination  between  astronomy  and 
astrology. 

But  by  the  side  of  this  plausible  though  erroneous 
alliance  between  a  science  and  a  pseudo-science,  we 
must  not  fail  to  observe  that  there  existed  a  con- 


Astrology  259 

tinned  influence  of  the  old  Babylonian  astrology,  less 
honourable  in  its  character  and  less  agreeable  to  con- 
template. We  have  already  taken  note  of  the  fact 
that  when  a  religious  custom  is  transplanted  to  a 
foreign  soil,  its  degeneration  sets  in.  ^  This  happened 
when  the  divination  methods  of  Babylonia  made 
their  way  to  the  West.  Not  only  was  the  Babylonian 
astrology  transferred  to  Greece  but  the  bdru  priests 
went  with  it.  Diu"ing  the  three  centuries  after  Alex- 
ander we  frequently  read  in  Greek  and  Roman  authors 
of  "Chaldeans"  following  the  armies  as  diviners, 
and  plying  a  profitable  trade  in  furnishing  omens  on 
all  occasions.  These  "Chaldeans "  emerge  not  only  as 
astrologers,  but  as  diviners  by  the  liver.  Their  repu- 
tation was  none  of  the  best.  Greek  and  Latin  writers 
rehearse  the  tricks  with  which  they  plied  their  trade, ^ 
until  in  time  "Chaldean"  became  synonymous  with 
"imposter."  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  also 
significant  of  the  influence  which  Babylonian  prac- 
tices continued  to  exert  three  centuries  before  our 
era,  that  the  term  "Chaldean"  became  synonymous 
with  diviner  and  more  particularly  with  one  who  read 
the  future  in  the  stars.  It  does  not  follow,  therefore, 
that  all  diviners  who  are  spoken  of  as  "Chaldeans" 
necessarily  come  from  Mesopotamia.  They  appear 
frequently  to  have  been  natives  of  Egypt,  where 
— no  doubt  under  influences  coming  from  the 
^  See  above,  p.  198.  .    _  ^  See  above,  p.  199. 


26o  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

East — divination  flourished  during  these  three  cen- 
turies as  it  never  did  in  the  pre- Grecian  period  of 
Egyptian  history.  In  fact,  with  the  wave  of  mysti- 
cism that  swept  over  Asia  Minor,  over  Greece,  and 
over  the  lands  around  the  Mediterranean,  and 
as  the  simple  faith  in  the  old  order  declined,  the 
superstitions  of  the  past  acquired  fresh  vigour. 
Divination  of  various  kinds  became  the  "fad"  of 
cultured  circles  as  well  as  of  the  ignorant  masses, 
and  the  prominence  assumed  by  astrology  among  these 
practices  led  to  the  appHcation  of  the  term  "  Chaldean 
wisdom"  to  the  observation  of  the  stars.  We  must, 
however,  bear  in  mind  that  the  term  as  used  by  Greek 
and  Roman  writers  means  primarily  astrology,  and  not 
astronomy.  The  Babylonian  bdru  priests,  who  left 
their  native  soil  in  search  of  a  more  profitable  market 
elsewhere,  found  plenty  of  imitators  who  were  too 
anxious  to  be  known  also  as  "Chaldeans,"  though  no 
doubt,  for  a  time  at  least,  the  main  supply  of  diviners 
in  Greece,  Rome,  Asia  Minor,  and  Egypt  came  from 
the  Euphrates  Valley. 


IX 


The  movement  which  took  place  in  Bab3donia  and 
Assyria  when,  through  Persian,  Greek,  and  other  in- 
fluences, the  basis  of  the  astrological  system  was 
weakened  by  the  increasing  importance  of  a  genuine 


Astrology  261 

science  growing  out  of  the  study  of  the  phenomena  of 
the  heavens,  reminds  us  of  what  happened  in  Judea. 
There,  through  the  concentration  of  the  legitimate 
Jahweh  cult  in  the  sanctuary  at  Jerusalem,  the  priests 
of  the  numerous  local  sanctuaries  scattered  through- 
out Palestine  were  deprived  of  their  prestige,  and  to 
a  large  extent  of  their  means  of  livelihood.  These 
priests,  known  as  Levites^  "lost  their  job,"  if  the  ex- 
pressive colloquial  phrase  be  permitted.  The  local 
sanctuaries  were  abandoned,  but  fortunately  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  Levites  in  the  priestly  code. 
They  were  assigned  to  the  lower  menial  duties  at  the 
temple  in  Jerusalem,  and  to  act  as  attendants  to  the 
Jahweh  priests — the  kohanim, — to  be  their  "hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water."  In  Babylonia  no 
Priestly  Code  was  evolved  to  provide  for  the  new 
order  of  things,  and  so  when  the  bdru  priests  were  re- 
placed by  the  astronomers,  the  former  left  their 
homes,  and,  attracted  by  the  prospect  of  successful 
careers  in  foreign  lands,  became  the  strolling  magi- 
cians and  soothsayers  of  antiquity. 

The  old,  as  almost  invariably  happens,  partially 
survived  by  the  side  of  the  new;  with  the  new  alliance 
between  astrology  and  astronomy,  brought  about  by 
the  accommodation  of  Babylonian  methods  to  the 
Greek  spirit,  the  old-time  astrology  continued  in  force 

^  The  term  seems  to  mean  "followers" — "attaches,"  as  it 
were — to  a  god,  the  guardians  of  his  shrine. 


262  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

and  is  represented  by  these  "  Chaldean  "  mountebanks. 
The  pseudo-scientists  adopted  in  time  the  phraseology 
and  a  superficial  smattering  of  astronomical  lore  from 
the  more  genuine  devotees  of  the  study  of  the  heavens, 
but  their  method  remained  essentially  that  of  the  old 
Babylonian  astrologers.  We  have,  thus,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  serious  cultivation  of  the  newer  astrology 
under  the  guise  of  genethlialogy,  and,  on  the  other, 
the  continuation  of  the  older  form  resting  on  a 
pseudo-scientific  basis,  but  degraded  to  the  rank  of  a 
dishonest  profession  through  the  "Chaldean"  priests, 
who  no  longer  found  recognition  in  their  native  land. 

With  the  entire  collapse  of  astrology  even  in  the 
form  given  to  it  by  the  Greek  astronomers,  through 
the  newer  scientific  spirit  of  our  own  days  which  has 
destroyed  the  bond  between  the  individual  and  the 
phenomena  of  the  heavens,  the  divorce  between  as- 
tronomy and  astrology  became  absolute  and  com- 
plete ;  but  the  "  Chaldeans  "  of  Greek  and  Roman  times 
have  their  successors  in  the  modern  "astrologers" 
who,  indifferent  to  the  postulates  of  modern  science, 
have  adopted  the  jargon  of  scientific  nomenclature, 
and  still  carry  on  a  flourishing  trade  in  the  cities  and 
country  districts  of  Europe  and  America,  and  seem 
to  justify  the  harsh  dictum  ascribed  to  Pope  Paul  IV. : 
mundus  vult  decipi  ergo  decipiatur. '  Perhaps  it  is 
just  as  well  that  those  who  do  not  wish  to  be  convinced 

'  "The  world  wishes  to  be  deceived — let  it  be  deceived." 


Astrology  263 

should  be  deceived;  and,  after  all,  astrology  is  possibly 
the  most  innocent  form  of  charlatanism  in  our  modern 
life.  We  must,  however,  beware  of  the  error  of  con- 
fusing these  modem  "astrologers"  with  the  astrologer- 
astronomers  of  the  Middle  Ages  with  whom  they 
natin-ally  strive  to  claim  relationship.  This  honour- 
able guild  of  scientists  was  Hmited  merely  by  the  in- 
tellectual and  scientific  horizon  of  their  day.  The 
astronomers  of  the  Middle  Ages  who  attached  as- 
trology to  their  scientific  study  of  the  heavens  con- 
tinued the  traditions  of  the  Greek  astronomers,  who 
adopted  the  astrology  of  the  Babylonians  and  As- 
syrians as  a  practical  application  of  the  scientific 
astronomy  long  cultivated  by  them.  The  alli- 
ance was  misguided  but  was  not  unholy.  The 
modern  "astrologers"  who,  through  the  law  of  de- 
mand and  supply,  pose  as  casters  of  individual  horo- 
scopes, may  be  thus  directly  traced  back  to  the  old 
bdru  priests.  Unscientific  or  pseudo-scientific,  like 
their  more  immediate  ancestors, — the  "Chaldean" 
charlatans, — the  astrologers  of  our  days  continue  to 
ply  a  profession  for  which  the  tools  are  simple  and 
the  tricks  complicated. 

The  question  may  arise,  while  following  this  story 
of  the  birth  and  growth  of  astrology,  why  exhume  the 
superstitions  and  follies  of  the  past?  Of  what  use  is 
it?  Various  are  the  answers.  The  path  of  mankind 
in  its  progress  toward  an  unknown  goal  is  devious, 


264  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

leading  over  wastes  of  error  and  falsehood.  History 
is  as  full  of  failures  as  of  achievements,  and  we  must 
study  the  one  as  fully  as  the  other.  But  perhaps  the 
most  satisfactory  answer  is  suggested  by  the  dis- 
tinguished Bouche-Leclercq,  who,  raising  this  very 
question  at  the  close  of  the  introduction  to  his  stand- 
ard work  on  Greek  astrology,*  heroically  declares — 
and  what  heart  will  not  respond? — that  it  is  not  a 
waste  of  time  to  find  out  how  other  people  have 
wasted  theirs. 

*  VAstrologie  Grecque,  p.  ix. 


LECTURE   V 

THE   TEMPLES   AND   THE   CULTS 


THE  modem  and  occidental  view  of  a  temple  as  a 
place  of  worship  gives  only  a  part  of  the  pic- 
ture when  we  come  to  regard  the  sanctuaries  of  the 
gods  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria.  Throughout  an- 
tiquity, the  sanctuary  represents,  first  and  foremost, 
the  dwelling  of  a  god.  Among  the  Semites  it  grows 
up  around  the  sacred  stone,  which,  originally  the  god 
himself,  becomes  either,  in  the  form  of  an  altar,  a 
symbol  of  his  presence,  or  is  given  the  outlines  of  an 
animal  or  human  figiire  (or  a  combination  of  the  two) , 
and  becomes  a  representative  of  the  deity — his  counter- 
feit. Stone,  altar,  and  image  are  merely  phases  of  the 
primitive  animistic  conception.  Without  differentiat- 
ing sharply  between  the  various  manifestations  of  life 
in  the  universe,  primitive  man  sought  to  localise 
the  unseen  Powers;  and,  through  an  instinct,  form- 
ing part  of  his  meagre  equipment  at  the  outset  of  his 
strange  and  miraculous  career,  he  dimly  felt  that  they 

265 


266  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

should  be  propitiated,  since  at  times  he  clearly  per- 
ceived that  they  controlled  his  welfare,  and  appar- 
ently intervened  at  critical  moments  in  his  own  life, 
or  in  that  of  the  group  to  which  he  belonged. 

The  charming  legend  of  Jacob's  dream, »  devised  to 
account  for  the  sanctity  of  an  ancient  centre  of  wor- 
ship— Luz, — illustrates  this  development  of  the  temple, 
from  an  ancient  and  more  particularly  from  a  Semitic 
point  of  view.  The  "  place  "^  to  which  Jacob  comes 
is  a  sacred  enclosure  formed  by  stones.  His  stone 
pillow  is  the  symbol  of  the  deity,  and  originally  the 
very  deity  himself.  The  god  in  the  stone  "reveals" 
himself,  because  Jacob  by  direct  contact  with  the 
stone  becomes,  as  it  were,  one  with  the  god,  precisely 
as  a  sacred  relic — an  image,  or  any  sacred  symbol — 
communicates  a  degree  of  sanctity  to  him  who  touches 
it,  whether  by  kissing  it  or  by  pressing  against  it.^ 
When  Jacob  awakes  he  realises   that  Jahweh  is  the 

^  Genesis,  chap,  xxviii.,  11-22.  The  story  in  its  present  form 
represents  the  combination  of  two  versions. 

2  The  Hebrew  term  mdkom  corresponds  to  the  Arabic  makdm, 
which  is  still  used  to  designate  a  shrine  or  a  chapel. 

3  The  Hebrew  term  mdshah,  "to  anoint"  (from  which  we  ob- 
tain the  term  Messiah),  means  to  "press,"  and  to  this  day  the 
Mohammedan  pilgrims  at  Mecca  press  against  the  Caaba — 
the  sanctuary  at  that  place — in  order  to  gain  for  themselves  the 
sanctity  attaching  to  it.  See  Wellhausen,  Reste  Arahischen 
Heidentums,  p.  105  seq.  The  same  motive  appears  to  underlie 
the  custom  of  the  orthodox  Jews  of  Palestine  who  in  praying  press 
against  the  wall  at  Jerusalem  that  is  traditionally  regarded  as 
part  of  Solomon's  temple. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       267 

god  of  the  sacred  enclosure,  which  he  designates  as 
"the  house  of  the  Lord"  (Elohim)  and  "gate  of 
heaven."  He  sets  up  the  stone  as  an  altar,  anoints  it 
(thus  doing  homage  to  the  deity  represented  by  the 
stone,)  precisely  as  one  anoints  a  king  or  a  priest.  He 
changes  the  name  of  the  sacred  place  to  Bethel,  i.e., 
"house  of  God,"  and  declares  his  intention  on  his  re- 
turn to  his  father's  house  to  convert  the  stone  into  a 
"house  of  the  Lord."  The  stone  becomes  the  house, 
and  the  sanctuary  is  the  home  of  the  god  represented 
by  the  stone. 

When  later  on  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  was  built, 
the  name  given  to  it  was  the  "holy  house,"  and  it  is 
commonly  spoken  of  as  the  "house  of  Jahweh"  in 
which  he  was  supposed  to  dwell.  "I  have  built  a 
lofty  house  for  Thee,"  says  Solomon,  "a  place  for  Thy 
dwelling  for  all  times."  ^  To  this  day  the  central 
sanctuary  of  Islamism,  the  Caaba  at  Mecca,  is  known 
as  the  "house  of  Allah";  and  such  is  the  intimate 
character  of  the  relation  between  Allah  and  his  wor- 
shippers that  the  latter  regard  the  mosque  not  merely 
as  a  place  for  prayer,  but  as  a  paternal  mansion  into 
which  they  can  wander  at  any  time  of  the  day  for  rest 
and  recreation.  It  is  not  uncommon  in  the  Orient  to 
see  a  worshipper  taking  a  siesta  in  a  mosque,  and  even 
performing  his  toilet  there.  The  temple  thus  be- 
comes a  home  for  the  worshipper  as  well  as  for  the 

^  I  Kings  viii.,  13. 


268  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

deity.  In  a  recent  address,  ^  Prof.  Flinders  Petrie  has 
shown  that  the  interior  arrangement  of  an  Egyptian 
temple  was  planned  after  the  mansions  of  the  nobles, 
and  that  the  ctilt  in  its  general  features  followed  the 
daily  routine  observed  in  large  households.  The 
room  containing  the  image  of  the  deity  was  swept 
and  prepared  for  the  day's  duties.  A  fire  was  lit,  the 
god  washed,  anointed,  and  food  was  placed  before 
him;  thereafter  the  god  was  ready  to  receive  his  wor- 
shippers, just  as  the  grand  seigneur  receives  in  the 
morning  the  homage  of  his  clients  and  the  visits  of  the 
members  of  his  household. 

In  like  manner,  the  "house"  motif  prevails  in  the 
Babylonian  and  the  Assyrian  sanctuaries.  Temple 
and  palace  adjoin  one  another  in  the  great  centres  of 
the  north  and  south.  The  temple  is  the  palace  of  the 
deity,  and  the  royal  palace  is  the  temple  of  the  god's 
representative  on  earth — who  as  king  retains  through- 
out all  periods  of  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  history 
traces  of  his  original  position  as  the  "lieutenant," 
or  even  the  embodiment  of  god — a  kind  of  alter  ego  of 
god,  the  god's  vicegerent  on  earth.  ^  The  term  which 
in  Babylonian  designates  more  specifically  the  palace, 
ekalluj  i.e.,  "great-house,"  becomes  in  Hebrew,  under 
the  form  hekhal,  one  of  the  designations  of  Jahweh's 

'  Presidential  address  before  the  Egyptian  Section  of  the 
Third  International  Congress  for  the  History  of  Religions. 
Transactions,  vol.  i.,  pp.  i86  seq. 

2  See  above,  p.  241. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       269 

sanctuary  in  Jerusalem.  Temple  and  palace  are  al- 
most interchangeable  terms.  Both  are  essentially 
houses,  and  every  temple  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 
bore  a  name  which  contained  as  one  of  its  elements 
the  word  "  house."  ^  The  ruler,  embodying,  origin- 
ally, what  we  should  designate  as  both  civil  and  re- 
ligious functions,  was  god,  priest,  and  king  in  one. 
We  have  seen  that  the  kings  were  in  the  earlier  period 
often  designated  as  divine  beings:  they  regarded 
themselves  as  either  directly  descended  from  gods  or 
as  "named"  by  them,  i.e.,  created  by  them  for  the 
office  of  king.  To  the  latest  days  they  could  perform 
sacrifices — the  distinct  prerogative  of  the  priests — 
and  among  their  titles  both  in  ancient  and  in  later 
days,  "priest"  is  frequently  included.^  With  the 
differentiation  of  functions  consequent  upon  political 
growth  and  religious  advance  the  service  of  the  god 
was  committed  to  a  special  class  of  persons.    Priests 

'Thus  we  have  E-Zida,  "legitimate  house,"  the  name  of 
Nebo's  temple  in  Borsippa,  E-Anna,  "heavenly  house,"  the 
name  of  Ishtar's  temple  in  Uruk,  E-Sagila,  "the  lofty  house," 
the  name  of  Ea's  temple  in  Eridu  and  of  Marduk's  sanctuary 
in  Babylon,  E-Barra,  "the  shining  house,"  the  name  of  the 
temple  of  Shamash  in  Sippar,  and  Larsa,  "house  of  joy," 
the  name  of  Sin's  temple  in  Ur,  etc. 

^  So,  e.g.,  Lugalzaggisi  calls  himself  "priest  of  Anu,"  "great 
servant  of  Sin,"  etc.  (Thureau-Dangin,  Sumerisch-Akkadische 
Konigsinschriften,  p.  154  lines  7  and  12),  and  at  the  close  of 
Babylonian  history,  we  find  Nebuchadnezzar  II.  designating 
himself  as  the  "lofty  Patesi,"  i.e.,  "priestly  ruler"  (Rawlinson,  I., 
Plate  59,  col.  i.,  5). 


270  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

from  being  the  attendants  of  the  kings,  became  part 
of  the  rehgious  household  of  the  god.  The  two  house- 
holds, the  civil  and  the  religious,  supplemented 
each  other.  Over  the  one  presided  the  ruler,  sur- 
rounded by  a  large  and  constantly  growing  retinue  for 
whom  quarters  and  provisions  had  to  be  found  in  the 
palace;  at  the  head  of  the  temple  organisation  stood 
the  god  or  goddess,  whose  sanctuary  grew  in  equal 
proportion,  to  accommodate  those  who  were  chosen 
to  be  servitors.  Even  the  little  shrines  scattered 
throughout  the  Islamic  Orient  of  to-day — commonly 
fitted  up  as  tombs  of  saints,  but  often  replacing  the  site 
of  the  dwelling-place  of  some  ancient  deity — have  a 
place  set  aside  for  the  servitor  of  the  god, — the 
guardian  of  the  sanctuary, — just  as  a  private  house- 
hold has  its  quarters  for  the  servants.  As  the  temple 
organisation  becam.e  enlarged,  the  apartments  for 
the  priests  coiTespondingly  increased.  Supplement- 
ary edifices  became  necessary  to  accommodate  the 
stores  required  for  the  priests  and  the  cult.  The 
temple  grew  into  a  temple-area,  which,  in  the  large 
religious  centres,  in  time  assumed  the  dimensions  of  an 
entire  sacred  quarter. 

There  is  still  another  aspect  of  the  temples  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria.  We  have  already  taken 
note^  of  the  tendency  to  group  the  chief  gods  and 
goddesses  and  many  of  the  minor  ones  also  around  the 

*  Above,  pp.  18  seq.;  104,  122  seq. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       271 

main  deity,  in  a  large  centre.  A  god  like  Enlil  at 
Nippur,  Shamash  at  Sippar,  Ningirsu  at  Lagash,  Sin 
at  Ur,  and  Marduk  at  Babylon,  is  not  only  served -by 
a  large  body  of  priests,  but,  again,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
great  ruler  who  gathers  around  his  court  the  members 
of  his  official  family,  smaller  sanctuaries  were  erected 
within  the  temple  area  at  Nippur  to  Ninlil,  Enlil's  con- 
sort, to  Ninib,  Nusku,  Nergal,  Ea,  Sin,  Shamash,  Mar- 
duk, and  others,  all  in  order  to  emphasise  the  domin- 
ant position  of  Enlil.  ^  It  is  safe  to  state  that  in  the 
zenith  of  Nippur's  glory  all  the  important  gods  of  the 
pantheon  were  represented  in  the  cult  at  that  place. 
We  have  a  list  of  no  less  than  thirteen  sanctuaries  at 
Lagash,^  and  we  may  feel  certain  that  they  all  stood 
within  the  sacred  area  around  E-Ninnu,  "house  of 
fifty,"  which  was  the  name  given  to  Ningirsu's  dwell- 
ing at  that  place.  At  the  close  of  Babylonian  his- 
tory we  find  Nebuchadnezzar  II.  enumerating,  among 
his  numerous  inscriptions,  the  shrines  and  sanctuaries 
grouped  around  E-Sagila,  "the  lofty  house,"  as  Mar- 
duk's  temple  at  Babylon  was  called.  His  consort  Sar- 
panit,  his  son  Nebo,  his  father  Ea,  were  represented, 
as  were  Sin,  Shamash,  Adad,  Ishtar,  Ninib  and  his 
consort  Gula,  Nergal  and  his  consort  Laz,  and  so  on 


^  See,  e.g.,  the  list  of  temples  in  a  Nippur  text  from  the  Cas- 
slte  period,  published  by  Clay,  Dated  Cassite  Archives  (Babylon- 
ian Expedition,  vol.  xiv.),  No.  148, 

2  Scheil,  Reciieil  de  Travaux,  vol.  xvii.,  39. 


272  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

through  a  long  list.  There  was  no  attempt  made  to 
assimilate  the  cult  of  these  deities  to  that  of  Marduk, 
despite  the  tendency  to  heap  upon  the  latter  the  at- 
tributes of  all  the  gods.  The  shrines  of  these  gods, 
bearing  the  same  names  as  those  of  their  sanctuaries 
in  their  own  centres  of  worship,^  served  to  maintain 
the  identity  of  the  gods,  while  as  a  group  around  Mar- 
duk they  illustrated  and  emphasised  the  subsidiary 
position  which  they  occupied.  In  a  measure,  this 
extension  of  the  "house"  of  a  deity  into  a  sacred 
quarter  with  dwellings  for  gods  whose  actual  seat  was 
elsewhere,  displaced  the  original  idea  connected  with 
a  sanctuary,  but  kings  also  erected  palaces  for  them- 
selves in  various  places  without  endangering  either 
the  prestige  or  the  conception  of  a  central  dwelling 
in  the  capital  of  the  kingdom.  The  shrines  of  the 
gods  within  the  sacred  area  of  E-Sagila  represented 
temporary  abodes,  or  "embassies"  as  it  were,  and 
so  it  happened  that  even  Marduk  had  a  foreign 
sanctuary,  e.g.,  at  Borsippa  to  symbolise  the  close  re- 
lationship between  him  and  Nebo. 

The  rulers  of  Assyria  vied  with  those  of  the  south 
in  beautifying  and  enlarging  the  temples  of  their 
gods,  and  in  constantly  adding  new  structures ;  or  re- 

^  Thus  Nebo's  temple  in  Babylon  was  known  as  E-Zida,  "the 
legitimate  house,"  which  was  the  name  also  of  his  temple  in  the 
central  place  of  his  worship  at  Borsippa.  Shamash's  temple  at 
Babylon  was  E-Barra,  "the  shining  house,"  as  at  Sippar,  etc- 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       273 

building  the  old  which  had  fallen  into  decay.  The 
sacred  quarter  in  the  old  capital  at  Ashur,  and  in  the 
later  capital  at  Nineveh,  was  studded  with  edifices, 
and  the  priests  have  left  us  lists  ^  of  the  many  gods  and 
goddesses  "whose  names  were  invoked,"  as  the  phrase 
ran,  in  the  temples  of  the  capital. 


II 


With  the  growth  of  the  temple  organisation,  its 
administration  also  assumed  large  proportions.  The 
functions  of  the  priests  were  differentiated,  and  as- 
signed to  several  classes — diviners,  exorcisers,  as- 
trologers, physicians,  scribes,  and  judges  of  the  court, 
to  name  only  the  more  important ;  and  as  early  as  the 
days  of  Hammurapi,  we  learn  of  priestesses  attached 
to  the  service  of  Shamash  and  of  other  gods.  The 
importance  of  these  priestesses,  however,  appears  to 
have  grown  less,  as  the  reh'gion  developed.  An  in- 
stitution like  that  of  the  vestal  virgins  also  existed 
at  an  early  period,  though  the  material  at  our  dis- 
posal is  as  yet  too  meagre  to  enable  us  to  specify  the 
nature  of  the  institution,  or  the  share  in  the  ctdt  al- 
lotted to  these  virgins. 

The  temple  was  also  the  centre  of  intellectual  life. 
Within  the  sacred  precinct  was  the  temple  school  in 
which  the  aspirants  to  the  priesthood  were  prepared 

»  Rawlinson,  III.  Plate  66. 


274  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

for  their  future  careers — just  as  to  this  day  the  in- 
struction of  the  young  in  Islamism,  as  well  as  the 
discussions  of  the  learned,  takes  place  within  the  pre- 
cincts of  the  mosques.  Learning  remained  under  the 
control  of  the  priests  throughout  all  periods  of  Baby- 
lonian and  Assyrian  history.  In  a  certain  very  defi- 
nite sense  all  learning  was  religious  in  character,  or 
touched  religion  at  some  vital  point.  In  the  oldest 
legal  code  of  the  Pentateuch,  the  so-called  "Book  of 
the  Covenant,"  the  term  used  for  the  exercise  of  legal 
functions  is  "to  draw  nigh  to  the  Lord"  (Elohim),  i.e., 
to  appear  before  God,^  and  this  admirably  reflects 
the  legal  procedure  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria.  The 
laws  of  the  country  represented  the  decrees  of  the 
gods.  Legal  decisions  were  accordingly  given  through 
the  representatives  and  servitors  of  the  gods — the 
kings,  in  the  earlier  ages,  and  later  the  priests.  At 
the  close  of  his  famous  code,  Hammurapi,  whose  proud- 
est title  is  that  of  "king  of  righteousness,"  endowed 
with  justice  by  Shamash — the  paramount  god  of  jus- 
tice and  righteousness, — states  that  one  of  the  aims  of 
his  life  was  to  restrain  the  strong  from  oppressing  the 
weak,  and  to  procure  justice  for  the  orphan  and 
the  widow.  He  appropriately  deposits  in  E-Sagila, 
the  temple  of  Marduk  in  Babylon,  the  stone  on  which 
he  had  inscribed  the  laws  of  the  country  "for  ren- 
dering decisions,  for  decreeing  judgments  in  the  land, 
*  Exodus  xxi.,  6. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       275 

for  the  righting  of  wrongs."  The  ultimate  source  of 
all  law  being  the  deity  himself,  the  original  legal  tri- 
bunal was  the  place  where  the  image  or  symbol  of  the 
god  stood.  A  legal  decision  was  an  oracle  or  omen, 
indicative  of  the  will  of  the  god.  The  Hebrew  word 
for  law,  torah,  has  its  equivalent  in  the  Babylonian 
tertu,  which  is  the  common  term  for  "omen."^  This 
indissoluble  bond  between  law  and  religion  was 
symbolised  by  retaining  the  tribunal,  at  all  times, 
within  the  temple  area  and  by  placing  the  dispensing 
of  justice  in  the  hands  of  the  priests — a  condition  that 
is  also  characteristic  of  legal  procedure  in  all  the 
Pentateuchal  codes,  including  the  latest,  the  so-called 
Priestly  Code. 

The  power  thus  lodged  in  the  priests  of  Babylonia 
and  Assyria  was  enormous.  They  virtually  held  in 
their  hands  the  life  and  death  of  the  people,  and  while 
the  respect  for  authority,  the  foundation  of  all  gov- 
ernment, was  profoundly  increased  by  committing 
the  functions  of  the  judges  to  the  servitors  of  the 
gods,  yet  the  theory  upon  which  the  dispensation  of 
justice  rested,  though  a  logical  outcome  of  the  pre- 
vailing religious  beliefs,  was  fraught  with  grave  dan- 

^  The  Hebrew  tradition,  or  rather  dogma,  of  the  divine  origin 
of  the  Pentateuch  is  merely  another  way  of  saying  that  legal  de- 
crees represent  the  oracles  furnished  by  the  gods.  Moses,  to 
whom  tradition  ascribes  the  Pentateuch,  is  merely  the  instrument 
through  which  the  laws  are  transmitted  by  Jahweh,  just  as 
Hammurapi  is  the  mouthpiece  of  Shamash. 


276  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

gers.  A  single  unjust  decision  was  sufficient  to 
shake  the  confidence  not  merely  in  the  judge  but  in  the 
god  whose  mouthpiece  he  was  supposed  to  be.  An 
error  on  the  part  of  a  judge  demonstrated,  at  all 
events,  that  the  god  no  longer  cherished  him;  he  had 
forfeited  the  god's  assistance.  Accordingly,  one  of 
the  first  provisions  in  the  Hammurapi  code"^  ordains 
that  a  judge  who  renders  a  false  decision  is  to  be 
removed  from  office.  There  was  no  court  of  appeal 
in  those  days;  nor  any  need  of  one,  under  the  prevail- 
ing acceptance  of  legal  decisions.  The  existence  of 
this  provision  may  be  taken  as  an  indication  that  the 
incident  was  not  infrequent.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
thousands  of  legal  documents  that  we  now  have  from 
almost  all  periods  of  Babylonian- Assyrian  history  fur- 
nish eloquent  testimony  to  the  scrupulous  care  with 
which  the  priests,  as  judges,  sifted  the  evidence  brought 
before  them,  and  rendered  their  decisions  in  accordance 
with  this  evidence. 

The  temples  were  the  natural  depositories  of  the 
legal  archives,  which  in  the  course  of  centuries  grew  to 
veritably  enormous  proportions.  Records  were  made 
of  all  decisions;  the  facts  were  set  forth,  and  duly  at- 
tested by  witnesses.  Business  and  marriage  contracts, 
loans  and  deeds  of  sale  were  in  like  manner  drawn  up 
in  the  presence  of  official  scribes,  who  were  also 
priests.     In  this  way  all  commercial  transactions  re- 

'  §  5  (col.  vi.,  6-30,  ed.  R.  F.  Harper). 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       2^^] 

ceived  the  written  sanction  of  the  religious  organisa- 
tion. The  temples  themselves — at  least  in  the  large 
centres — entered  into  business  relations  with  the  pop- 
ulace. In  order  to  maintain  the  large  household  re- 
presented by  such  an  organisation  as  that  of  the  temple 
of  Enlil  at  Nippur,  that  of  Ningirsu  at  Lagash,  that 
of  Marduk  at  Babylon,  or  that  of  Shamash  at  Sippar, 
large  holdings  of  land  were  required  which,  cultivated 
by  agents  for  the  priests,  or  farmed  out  with  stipula- 
tions for  a  goodl}^  share  of  the  produce,  secured  an  in- 
come for  the  maintenance  of  the  temple  officials.  The 
enterprise  of  the  temples  was  expanded  to  the  fur- 
nishing of  loans  at  interest — in  later  periods,  at  20% — 
to  barter  in  slaves,  to  dealings  in  lands,  besides  en- 
gaging labour  for  work  of  all  kinds  directly  needed  for 
the  temples.  A  large  quantity  of  the  business  docu- 
ments found  in  the  temple  archives  are  concerned  with 
the  business  affairs  of  the  temple,  and  we  are  justified 
in  including  the  temples  in  the  large  centres  as  among 
the  most  important  business  institutions  of  the 
country.^  In  financial  or  monetary  transactions  the 
position  of  the  temples  was  not  unlike  that  of  national 
banks;  they  carried  on  their  business  with  all  the 
added  weight  of  official  authority.  The  legal  and  busi- 
ness functions   thus   attached  to  the  temple  organ- 

*  For  further  details  see  Peiser's  Introduction  to  his  Keilin- 
schriftliche  Aktenstiicke;  Koliler-Peiser-Ungnad,  Atis  dem  Baby- 
lonischen  Rechtsleben  (4  parts) ;  and  Hammurabis  Gesetz  (4  vols.). 


278  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

isations  enlarged  also  the  scope  of  the  training  given 
in  the  temple-schools.  To  instruction  in  methods  of 
divination,  in  the  rituals  connected  with  exorcising 
demons  and  in  other  forms  of  incantations,  in  sacrifi- 
cial and  atonement  rituals,  in  astrology,  and  in  the 
treatment  of  diseases  as  supplementary  to  incantation 
rites,  there  was  added  training  in  the  drawing  up  of 
legal  documents,  in  the  study  of  the  laws,  and  in  ac- 
counting, including  calculations  of  interest  and  the 
like.^ 

It  is  to  the  temple-schools  that  we  owe  the  intel- 
lectual activity  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria.  The  in- 
centive to  gather  collections  of  omens,  of  incantations, 
and,  of  medical  compilations,  came  from  these  schools. 
Though  the  motive  was  purely  practical,  viz.,  to  fur- 
nish handbooks  for  the  priests  and  to  train  young 
candidates  for  the  priesthood,  nevertheless  the  in- 
centive was  intellectual  both  in  character  and  scope, 
and  necessarily  resulted  in  raising  the  standard  of 
the  priesthood  and  in  stimulating  the  literary  spirit. 
The  popular  myths  and  legends  were  given  a  literary 
form,  and  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  temple- 

^  Whether  instruction  in  clay  modelling  and  in  drawing  on 
clay  was  included  in  the  temple  curriculum,  as  Hilprecht  claimed, 
in  a  passage  of  his  Explorations  in  Bible  Lands,  p.  527,  may  be 
questioned.  The  example  that  he  gives  of  a  supposed  drawing 
of  a  bird  on  clay  turns  out  to  be  a  fragment  of  a  stone  vase,  and 
the  other  "bird"  on  clay  which  he  claims  was  discovered  in  the 
temple  at  Nippur  appears  to  have  flown  away. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       279 

schools.  An  interest  in  fables  was  aroused,  and  the 
wisdom  of  the  past  preserved  for  future  generations. 
Texts  of  various  kinds  were  prepared  for  the  schools. 
Hymns,  rituals,  incantations,  omens,  and  medical 
treatises  were  edited  and  provided  with  commentaries 
or  with  glasses,  and  explanatory  amplifications,  to 
serve  as  text-books  for  the  pupils  and  as  guides  for 
the  teachers.  For  the  study  of  the  language,  lists  of 
signs  with  their  values  as  phonetic  symbols,  and  their 
meanings  when  used  as  ideographs  were  prepared. 
Lists  of  all  kinds  of  objects  were  drawn  up,  names  of 
countries  and  rivers,  tables  of  verbal  forms,  with  all 
kinds  of  practical  exercises  in  combining  notms  and 
verbs,  and  in  forming  little  sentences.  The  practical 
purpose  served  by  many  of  these  exercises  is  shown  by 
the  character  of  the  words  and  phrases  chosen — they 
are  such  as  occur  in  legal  documents,  or  in  omens, 
or  in  other  species  of  religious  texts  used  in  the  cult. 
Many  of  these  school  texts,  including  the  collections 
of  omens  and  incantations  as  well  as  hymns  and 
rituals,  were  originally  written  in  a  "Sumerian" 
version,  though  emanating  from  priests  who  spoke 
Babylonian.  It  was  found  necessary  to  translate, 
or  to  "transliterate,"  them  into  the  Semitic  Baby- 
lonian. We  thus  obtain  many  bilingual  texts  fur- 
nishing both  the  Semitic  and  the  Sumerian  versions. 
A  large  proportion  of  the  literary  texts  in  Ashurbana- 
pal's  library  thus  turn  out  to  be  school  texts,  and 


28o  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

since  we  know  that  the  scribes  of  Ashurbanapal  pre- 
pared their  copies  from  originals  produced  in  Baby- 
lonia,— though  Assyria  also  contributed  her  share 
towards  literary  productions, — the  conclusion  seems 
justified  that  it  was  through  the  temple-schools  and 
for  the  temple-schools  that  the  literature,  which  is 
almost  wholly  religious  in  character,  or  touches  re- 
ligion at  some  point,  was  produced. 

It  will  be  apparent,  therefore,  that  the  temples  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria  served  a  variety  of  purposes, 
besides  being  merely  places  of  worship.  They  formed 
— to  emphasise  the  point  once  more — the  large  re- 
ligious households  of  the  country,  harbouring  large 
bodies  of  priests  for  whose  sustenance  provision  had 
to  be  made,  superintending  all  the  details  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  large  holdings,  exercising  the  func- 
tions of  legal  courts,  acting  as  the  depositories  of 
official  records — legal  and  historical, — besides  en- 
gaging in  the  activities  of  business  corporations  and  of 
training  institutions  in  all  the  branches  of  intellectual 
activity  that  centred  around  the  religious  beliefs  and 
the  cult.  It  was  through  the  temples,  in  short,  that 
the  bond  between  culture  and  religion,  which  was  set 
forth  in  a  previous  lecture,  was  maintained  during 
aU  periods  of  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  history. 

Ill 

The  present  ruined  condition  of  the  temples  of 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       281 

Babylonia  and  Assyria  makes  it  difficult  to  obtain  an 
accurate  idea  of  their  construction;  and  a  note  of 
warning  must  be  sounded  against  reconstructions, 
made  on  the  basis  of  earlier  excavations,  which  are,  in 
almost  all  respects,  purely  fanciful.  Thanks,  how- 
ever, to  the  careful  work  done  by  the  German  ex- 
pedition at  Ashur — the  old  capital  of  Assyria^ — our 
knowledge  of  details  has  been  considerably  extended; 
and  since  the  religious  architecture  of  Assyria  by 
the  force  of  tradition  follows  Babylonian  models, 
except  in  the  more  liberal  use  of  stone  instead  of 
bricks,  the  results  of  the  excavations  and  investi- 
gations of  the  temple  constructions  of  Ashur  may  be 
regarded  as  typical  for  Babylonian  edifices  as  well. 
The  "house"  motif ,  which,  we  have  seen,  domin- 
ated the  construction  of  temples,  led  to  the  setting 
apart  of  a  special  room  to  receive  the  image  of  the 
deity  for  whom  the  edifice  was  erected  as  a  dwelling- 
place.  The  private  quarters  of  the  deity  constituted 
the  "holy  of  holies,"  and  this  was  naturally  placed  in 
the  remotest  part  of  the  edifice.  To  this  room,  known 
as  "the  sacred  chamber, "  only  the  priests  and  kings 

^  See  Andrae,  Der  Anu-Adad  Tempel  (Leipzig,  1909),  and  the 
Mitteilungen  der  Deutschen  Orient-Gesellshaft,  especially  No. 
22  seq.  Much  is  also  to  be  expected  from  C.  S.  Fisher's  work  on 
Nippur  (in  course  of  publication),  devoted  to  a  careful  study 
of  the  architecture  of  the  walls  and  constructions  unearthed  in 
the  course  of  the  Nippur  excavations,  conducted  by  Messrs. 
Peters  and  Haynes. 


282  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

had  access;  they  alone  might  venture  into  the  pre- 
sence of  the  deity.  It  was  separated  from  the  rest 
of  the  building  by  an  enclosure  which  marked  the 
boundary  between  the  "holy  of  holies"  and  the  long 
hall  or  court  where  the  worshippers  assembled.  Out- 
side of  this  court  there  was  a  second  one,  in  which, 
presumably,  the  business  affairs  of  the  temple  were 
conducted.  Grouped  around  these  two  courts  were 
the  apartments  of  the  priests,  the  school,  and  the 
archive  rooms,  as  well  as  the  quarters  for  the  temple 
stores.  In  the  case  of  the  larger  centres,  we  must 
furthermore  suppose  many  special  buildings  for  the 
various  needs  of  the  religious  household,  stalls  for  the 
animals,  workshops  and  booths  for  the  manufact- 
ure of  temple  utensils,  fabrics,  and  votive  offerings, 
quarters  for  the  tribunals,  offices  of  the  notaries,  and 
the  Hke. 

A  feature  of  the  temple  area  in  the  large  centres  was 
a  brick  tower,  formed  by  from  two  to  seven  superim- 
posed stages,  which  stood  near  the  temple  proper. 
These  towers  were  known  as  zikkurats — a  term  that 
has  the  sense  of  "high"  places.  Elaborate  remains  of 
the  zikkurats  at  Nippur  and  at  Ashur  have  been  un- 
earthed, and  these  together  with  the  famous  one  at 
Borsippa,  still  towering  above  the  mounds  at  that 
place,  and  currently  believed  among  the  natives  to  be 
the  traditional  tower  of  Babel,  enable  us  to  form  a 
tolerably  accurate  idea  of  their  construction.     Huge 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults      283 

and  ungainly  quadrangular  masses  of  bricks,  placed 
one  above  the  othec  in  stories  diminishing  in  the 
square  mass  as  they  proceed  upwards,  these  towers 
attained  the  height  of  about  one  hundred  feet  and 
at  times  more.^  The  character  of  such  a  sacred 
edifice  differs  so  entirely  from  the  Babylonian  temple 
proper,  that,  in  order  to  account  for  its  presence  in 
Nippur,  Lagash,Ur,  Sippar,  Larsa,  Babylon,  Borsippa, 
Ashur,  Nineveh,  and  other  places,  we  must  perforce 
assume  a  second  motif  by  the  side  of  the  "house" 
scheme  of  a  temple.  The  height  of  these  towers,  as 
well  as  the  diminishing  mass  of  the  stones,  with  a 
winding  balustrade,  or  a  direct  ascent  from  one  stage 
to  the  other  up  to  the  top,  at  once  recalls  the  picture 
of  a  mountain. 

The  semblance  suggests  that  the  motif  must  have 
originated  with  a  people  dwelling  in  a  mountainous 
country,  who  placed  the  seats  of  their  gods  on  the 
mountain-tops,  as  was  so  generally  done  by  ancient 
peoples.  The  gods  who  are  thus  localised,  however, 
are  generally  storm  gods  like  Jahweh,  who  dwells  on 
the  top  of  Mt.  Sinai — or  according  to  another  view  on 
Mt.  Seir, — or  like  Zeus  on  Mt.  Olympus.  The  gods 
whose  manifestations  appear  in  the  heavens — in  the 
storm,  in  the  thunder,  and  in  the  lightning — would 
naturally  have  their  seats  on  high  mountains  whose 

^  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  estimated  the  one  at  Borsippa  to  have 
been  140  feet  high.    Plate  23,  Fig.  i. 


284  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

tops,  so  frequently  enveloped  in  clouds,  would  be  re- 
garded as  forming  a  part  of  heaven.^  If  this  sup- 
position be  correct,  we  should  furthermore  be  obliged 
to  assume  that  the  "mountain"  motif  wsls  brought  to 
the  mountainless  region  of  the  Euphrates  by  a  people 
entering  the  valley  from  some  mountainous  district. 
Since  the  zikkurats  can  be  traced  back  to  the  Sumerian 
period  (we  find  them  in  Gudea's  times  and  during 
the  Sumerian  dynasties  of  Ur),  their  introduction 
must  be  credited  to  the  Sumerians,  or  to  an  equally 
ancient  section  of  the  population.  We  have  seen  that 
it  is  not  possible  to  affirm  positively  that  non-Semitic 
settlers  were  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  the  Euphrates 
Valley;  but  the  circumstance  that  where  we  find 
zikkurats  in  Semitic  settlements  (such  as  the  min- 
arets attached  to  the  Mohammedan  mosques),  they 
can  be  traced  back,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  to 
Babylonian  prototypes,  furnishes  a  strong  presumption 
in  favour  of  ascribing  the  "mountain"  motif  to  Su- 
merian influence. 

It  is  not  without  significance  that  the  temple  at 

'  The  general  view  among  primitive  people  appears  to  have 
been  that  the  expanse  of  heaven  is  not  so  very  far  from  the 
earth.  Hence  the  ambition  to  scale  the  heavens,  which  forms  the 
basis  of  so  many  ancient  myths.  Even  in  the  BibHcal  story  of 
the  building  of  the  tower  (Genesis,  chap,  xi.)  which  was  to  reach 
to  heaven,  the  task  is  not  viewed  as  an  impossible  one  but  as  a 
wicked  plan.  Jahweh  is  afraid  in  fact  lest  the  wicked  plan  may 
succeed;  therefore  he  seeks  to  frustrate  it  by  confusing  the  speech 
of  the  builders.     See  below,  p.  298. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       285 

Nippur,  which  is  certainly  a  Sumerian  settlement,  and 
one  of  the  oldest,  bore  the  name  E-Kur,  "mountain- 
house,"  and  that  Enlil,  the  chief  deity  of  Nippur,  bears 
the  indications  of  a  storm-god,  ^  whose  dwelling  should, 
probably,  therefore,  be  on  a  mountain.  Herodotus^ 
is  authority  for  the  statement  that  there  was  a  small 
shrine  at  the  top  of  the  zikkural,  in  which  there  was  a 
statue  of  the  god  in  whose  honour  the  tower  was 
built.  This  shrine,  therefore,  represented  the  dwell- 
ing of  the  god,  and  corresponded  to  the  sacred  chamber 
in  the  temple  proper.  To  ascend  the  zikkurat  would 
thus  be  equivalent  to  paying  a  visit  to  the  god;  and 
we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  ascent  of  the 
zikkurat  formed  a  part  of  the  ceremonies  connected 
with  the  cult,  just  as  the  Jewish  pilgrims  ascended 
Mt.  Zion  at  Jerusalem  to  pay  their  homage  to  Jahweh, 
who  was  there  enshrined  after  the  people  had  moved 
away  from  Mt.  Sinai  and  Mt.  Seir.^ 

There  is  no  reason  to  assume  that  these  towers  were 
ever  used  for  astronomical  purposes,  as  has  been 
frequently  asserted.  Had  this  been  the  case,  we 
should  long  ere  this  have  found  reference  to  the  fact  in 

^  See  above,  p.  68  seq.  '  Book  I.,  i8i. 

3  The  sanctuary  on  Mt.  Zion  is  older  than  the  settlement  of 
the  Hebrews.  Jahweh  dispossesses  the  god  of  Zion,  just  as  his 
people  dispossess  the  older  settlers  of  Canaan.  Jahweh  wanders 
with  his  people,  and  though  tradition  continued  to  associate 
him  with  Mt.  Sinai,  to  the  later  Hebrews  Mt.  Zion  is  Jahweh's 
home. 


286  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

some  inscription.  References  to  an  observatory  for 
the  study  of  the  heavens,  known  as  the  hit  tamartiy 
i.e.,  "house  of  observation,"  are  not  infrequent,  but 
nowhere  is  there  any  indication  that  the  zikkurats 
were  used  for  that  purpose.  They  must  have  been 
regarded  as  too  sacred  to  be  frequently  visited,  even 
by  the  priests.  Access  to  them  was  rather  com- 
plicated, and  for  observations  needed  for  astrological 
divination  a  high  eminence  was  not  required.  Still 
more  groundless,  and  hardly  worthy  of  serious  con- 
sideration is  the  supposition  that  it  was  customary  to 
bury  the  dead  at  the  base  of  the  zikkurat,  which  in 
this  case  would  be  a  Babylonian  equivalent  of  the 
Egyptian  pyramid,  namely,  as  the  tomb  of  monarchs 
and  of  grand  personages. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  imitation  of  a  mountain  sug- 
gested a  further  symbolism  in  the  zikkurats,  which 
reveals  itself  in  the  names  given  to  some  of  them. 
While  no  special  stress  seems,  at  any  time,  to  have 
been  laid  on  the  number  of  stories  or  stages  of  which  a 
zikkurat  consisted,  the  chief  aim  of  the  builders  being 
the  construction  of  a  high  mass,  seven  stages  seems 
to  have  become  the  normal  number,  after  a  certain 
period.  There  seems  to  be  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
this  number  was  chosen  to  correspond  to  the  moon, 
sun,  and  five  planets,  which  we  have  seen  were  the  con- 
trolling factors  in  the  Babylonian- Assyrian  astrology. 
Gudea  describes  the  zikkurat  at   Lao^ash  known  as 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       2'^'] 

E-Pa  as  the  "house  of  the  seven  divisions "^  and  from 
the  still  fuller  designation  of  the  tower  at  Borsippa 
as  the  "seven  divisions  of  heaven  and  earth,"  it 
would  appear  that  in  both  cases  there  is  a  s5rmbolical 
reference  to  the  "seven  planets,"  as  the  moon,  sun, 
and  five  planets  were  termed  by  the  Babylonians 
themselves.^  Less  probable  is  the  interpretation  of 
the  name  of  the  tower  at  Uruk  as  the  "seven  en- 
closiires"  (or  possibly  "groves")  as  applying  like- 
wise to  the  seven  planets,  though  to  speak  of  the  moon, 
sun,  and  five  planets  as  "  enclosiu-es  "  would  be  a  per- 
fectly intelligible  metaphor.  That  the  symbolism  of 
the  zikkurats  was  carried  any  further,  however,  and 
each  stage  identified  with  one  of  the  planets,  may 
well  be  doubted,  nor  is  it  at  all  likely  that  the  bricks 
of  each  stage  had  a  different  colour,  corresponding 
to  colours  symbolically  associated  with  the  planets. 
Even  if  seven  different  colours  w^ere  used  in  the  con- 
struction, there  is  no  evidence  thus  far  that  these 
colours  were  connected  with  the  planets.^ 

Moreover,  a  valuable  hint  of  one  of  the  fundamental 
ideas  associated  with  the  zikkurat  is  to  be  found  in  the 
name  given  to  the  one  at  Larsa:  "the  house  of  the  link 

^  Thureau-Dangin,  Sumerisch-Akkadische  Inschriften,  pp.  76, 
84,  86,  etc. 

»  Rawlinson,  III.  Plate  57,  No.  6,  65. 

3  The  only  coloiirs  mentioned  in  astrological  texts  in  connec- 
tion with  the  planets  are  v/hite  for  Jupiter  or  Mars,  dark  red  for 
Mars,  and  black  (or  dark)  for  Mercury. 


288   Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  heaven  and  earth.'*  Attention  has  already  been 
called  to  the  fact^  that  the  heavens,  according  to  the 
prevailing  view  of  antiquity,  were  not  elevated  very 
far  above  the  earth.  The  tops  of  the  mountains  were 
regarded  as  reaching  into  heaven, — in  fact  as  be- 
longing to  the  heavens.  The  zikkurat,  therefore,  as 
the  imitation  of  the  mountain,  might  well  be  called  the 
"link"  uniting  earth  to  heaven.  The  name  is  of 
interest  because  of  the  light  which  it  throws  on  the 
famous  tale  in  Genesis  (chap,  xi.)  of  the  building  of 
the  tower.  To  the  Hebrew  writers,  particularly  those 
who  wrote  under  the  influence  of  the  reHgious  ideals 
of  the  prophets,  the  ambitious  aims  of  the  great  pow- 
ers of  antiquity — conquest,  riches,  large  armies,  brill- 
iant courts,  the  pomp  of  royalty,  and  indulgence 
in  luxury — were  exceedingly  distasteful.  Their  ideal 
was  the  agricultiiral  life  in  small  communities  gov- 
erned by  a  group  of  elders,  and  with  the  populace 
engaged  in  tilling  the  soil  and  in  raising  flocks, — 
living  peacefully  under  the  shade  of  the  fig  tree.  In 
the  view  of  these  writers,  even  such  a  work  as  the 
temple  of  Solomon,  built  by  foreign  hands,  in  imita- 
tion of  the  grand  structures  of  other  nations,  was  not 
pleasing  in  the  eyes  of  Jahweh,  whose  preference  was 
for  a  simple  tabernacle,  built  of  wood  without  the  use 
of  hewn  stones  and  iron, — both  of  which  represented 
innovations.  These  writers  were  what  we  should  call 
^  See  above,  p.  284,  note  i. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       289 

"old-fashioned," — advocates  of  the  simple  life.^ 
They  abominated,  therefore,  the  large  religious 
households  of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  and 
particularly  the  high  towers  which  were  the  "sky- 
scrapers" of  antiquity.^  The  narrative  of  the  tower 
of  Babel  is  told  as  a  protest  against  such  ambitious 
efforts,  but  the  interesting  featiire  of  the  narrative 
for  us  is,  that  it  correctly  interprets  the  purpose  of 
these  towers  as  aiming  to  reach  up  to  heaven.  The 
name  of  the  zikkurat  of  Larsa  well  illustrates  this 
aim — to  serve  as  a  "link,"  uniting  heaven  and  earth. 
To  the  pious  Hebrew  writer  such  an  undertaking 

^  This  preference  for  the  lower  form  of  culture  over  the  higher 
crops  out  in  many  tales  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  received 
their  present  form  under  the  influence  of  the  prophets.  So,  e.g., 
in  the  Cain  and  Abel  story,  Abel  the  keeper  of  flocks  is  preferred 
to  Cain  the  tiller  of  the  soil  and  the  builder  of  cities.  Vini- 
culture— a  higher  form  of  agriculture — is  condemned  in  the 
story  of  Noah.  The  Patriarchs  are  keepers  of  flocks,  represent- 
ing the  higher  type  of  nomads  but  lower  than  the  agriculturists. 
When  the  Hebrews  invaded  Palestine  and  dispossessed  the  Ca- 
naanites,  they  became,  as  the  Canaanites  had  been  for  generations, 
tillers  of  the  soil.  In  this  stage,  agriculture  is  preferred  to  the 
higher  form  of  culture  represented  by  commerce.  The  Priestly 
Code,  by  prohibiting  the  taking  of  interest,  puts  its  stamp  of 
disapproval  upon  mercantile  pursuits,  which  cannot  be  carried 
on  without  loans  of  money  at  a  reasonable  rate  of  interest.  The 
Priestly  Code  is  opposed  to  the  establishment  of  a  kingdom, 
and  the  additions  to  the  Deuteronomic  Code  threaten  the  in- 
stitution of  the  kingdom  as  a  punishment  for  the  sins  of  the 
nation. 

2  This  spirit  of  opposition  to  huge  structures  is  still  prevalent 
among  the  natives  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  districts,  who 
look  upon  such  endeavours  as  due  to  the  instigation  of  Satan, 
19 


290  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

seemed  ungodly.  He  does  not  regard  the  task  as  im- 
possible, but  impious, — a  wanton  insult  to  Providence. 
He,  therefore,  represents  Jahweh  as  intervening  to 
prevent  the  plan  from  being  carried  out.  The  sim- 
ple-hearted story,  in  picturing  Jahweh  as  coming 
down  to  see  what  his  creatures  were  doing,  reveals  its 
origin  as  a  genuine  folk-tale,  and  probably  an  old  one, 
which  a  later  writer,  in  sympathy  with  the  opposition 
of  primitive  folk  to  the  bolder  ambitions  of  an  ad- 
vanced culture,  adopts  to  emphasise  the  ungodliness 
of  Babylonia,  which  represented  just  the  things  which 
the  prophets  opposed  with  such  vehemence. 

The  "ladder"  which  Jacob  saw  in  his  dream  reach- 
ing from  earth  to  heaven  was  likewise  suggested  by 
the  zikkurat.  The  "ladder"  is  pictured  as  a  link 
uniting  earth  to  heaven,  and  the  term  used  in  the 
narrative  might  just  as  well  be  rendered  "  tower."  ^ 

IV 

Tower  and  temple  remain,  through  all  periods  of 
Babylonian- Assyrian  history,  the  types  of  religious 

"  The  word  sulldm  occurs  only  In  this  place  (Genesis  xxviii,  12) 
in  the  Old  Testament;  and  the  translation  "ladder"  is  merely 
a  guess.  A  more  legitimate  rendering  would  be  "roadway," 
and  since  the  towers  had,  as  above  pointed  out,  a  road  winding 
to  the  top,  sulldm  might  have  been  applied  to  describe  this 
"road,"  and  then  the  zikkurat  itseli.  It  should  be  noted  that 
in  Genesis  chap,  xl.,  two  stories  have  been  combined,  one  of  the 
building  of  a  city,  the  other  of  a  tower.  See  the  writer's  article 
"The  Tower  of  Babel"  above  (p.  3,  note  i)  referred  to. 


PI.  23.     Fig.  I.     The  two  Zikkurats  of  the  Anu-Adad  Temple  at  Ashur. 

See  comment  to  PI.  24,  Fig.  2.  The  temple  being  a  double  con- 
struction, one  zikkurat  or  stage  tower  belongs  to  the  Anu  sanctuary, 
the  other  to  the  sanctuary  of  Adad.  The  construction  of  this 
stage  tower  may  be  traced  back  to  the  reign  of  Ashurreshishi  I. 
(c.  1 150  B.C.).  It  was  rebuilt  by  Shalmaneser  III.  (858-824  b.c). 
The  illustration  shows  the  restoration  of  the  younger  construction 
on  the  basis  of  the  systematic  excavations  conducted  chiefly  by 
Andrae. 
Fig.  2.     The  Stage  Tower  at  Samarra. 

Dating  from  the  9th  century  a.d.  and  built  of  hard  stone;  it 
is  still  standing  at  Samarra,  a  settlement  on  the  Tigris,  and  used 
as  a  minaret  in  connection  with  an  adjoining  mosque.  The 
shape  is  directly  derived  from  the  old  Babylonian  (or  Sumerian) 
Zikkurats  and  may  be  regarded  as  typical  of  these  constructions. 
In  most  mosques,  the  minaret  is  directly  attached  to  the  main 
building  like  the  tower  or  steeple  of  a  church,  but  there  are  some 
which  stiU  illustrate  the  originally  independent  character  of  the 
tower.  See  Ernst  Herzfeld,  Samarra  (Berlin,  1907),  and  Hermann 
Thiersch,  Pharos,  Antike,  Islam  und  Occident  (Leipzig,  1909). 


Fig.  I.     Zikkurats  of  the  Anu-Adad  at  Ashur 


Fig.  2.    Stage-tower  at  Samarra 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       291 

architecture  and  survive  the  fall  of  both  countries. 
The  survival  of  religious  traditions,  despite  radical 
changes  in  outward  forms,  is  illustrated  by  the  adop- 
tion of  the  zikkurat  by  Islamism.  At  Samarra,  about 
sixty  miles  above  Bagdad,  there  survives  to  this  day  an 
almost  perfect  type  of  a  Babylonian  zikkurat,  as  a  part 
of  a  Mohammedan  mosque.^  Built  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  ninth  century  of  our  era,  and  rising  to  a  height 
of  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  feet,  it  has  a  winding 
ascent  to  the  top,  where  in  place  of  the  sacred  shrine 
for  the  god  is  the  platform  from  which  the  muezzin 
calls  the  faithful  to  prayer.  The  god  has  been  re- 
placed by  his  servitor,  and  instead  of  the  address  helu 
rahU  ("great  lord")  with  which  it  was  customary  to 
approach  the  deities  of  old,  Allah  akbar  ("Allah  is 
great")  is  heard  from  the  minarets^ — which,  as  will 
have  become  evident,  are  merely  modified  zikkurats. 
Arabic  writers  themselves  trace  the  custom  of  building 
a  minaret  at  the  side  of  a  mosque,  or  as  an  integral  part 
of  the  sacred  structure,  to  the  zikkurat  at  Samarra; 
and  the  chain  of  evidence  has  recently  been  completed 
to  show  that  the  steeples  of  our  modern  churches  are 
a  further  step  in  the  evolution  of  the  zikkurat,^ 

^  See  Herzfeld's  monograph,  Samarra  (Leipzig,  1908).  and  the 
illustration.     Plate  23,  Fig.  2. 

^Minaret  signifies  literally  "light-house"  or  "light- tower." 
Applied  originally  to  the  famous  "Hght-tower"  at  Pharos,  it  was 
extended  by  analogy  to  the  towers  attached  to  the  mosques. 

3  See  Thiersch,  Pharos  (Leipzig,  1909),  chap.  v. 


292  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

In  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  temple  and  tower, 
once  entirely  distinct,  show  a  tendency  to  unite. 
In  the  city  of  Ashur,  the  oldest  temple,  or  rather 
double  temple,  dedicated  to  Anu  and  Adad,^  has  a 
zikkurat  on  either  side,  each  being  directly  attached 
to  the  respective  temple  or  "house"  of  the  deity. 
Elsewhere — as  at  Nippur — the  zikkurat  is  close  be- 
hind the  temple,  but  even  when  adjacent  the  zik- 
kurat remains  an  independent  structure,  and  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  in  the  traditional  forms  of 
Christian  architecture,  the  church  tower  retains  this 
independent  character.  In  Catholic  countries  where 
traditions  are  closely  followed,  it  is  provided  that 
though  the  tower  should  be  a  part  of  the  church,  there 
must  be  no  direct  access  from  the  one  to  the  other.  ^ 

The  opposition  of  the  Hebrews  to  the  allurements  of 
Babylonian- Assyrian  civilisation  was  strong  enough 
to  check  the  introduction  of  zikkurats  into  Palestine, 
but  it  could  not  prevent  the  imitation  of  the  Assyrian 
temple  in  the  days  of  Solomon.  The  type  of  religious 
edifice  erected  by  this  grand  monarque  of  the  Hebrews 
followed  even  in  details  the  Assyrian  model  with  its 
threefold  division,  the  broad  outer  court,  the  oblong 

^  Andrae,  Anu-Adad-Tempel,  pp.  2  seq.  and  the  illustration 
Plate  23,  Fig.  i. 

'  The  campaniles  or  bell-towers  of  the  Italian  churches  (see 
the  illustrations  in  Thiersch,  I.e.,  pp.  180-182),  separated  from 
them  by  a  short  distance,  well  illustrate  the  original  relation  of 
temple  to  tower  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 


I 


PI.  24.     Fig.  I.  •  Plan  of  the  Temple  of  Enlil  at  Nippur. 

In  this  temple  which  may  be  regarded  as  typical  for  sacred 
edifices  in  Babylonia,  B  represents  the  outer  court,  and  A,  the 
inner  court,  the  two  being  practically  parallel  in  size  and  shape. 
The  Zikkurat  or  stage  tower  (Ai)  is  at  the  back  of  the  inner  court. 
The  narrower  section-  represents  the  sacred  chamber  (or  the  ap- 
proach to  it)  in  which  the  image  of  Enhl  stood.  In  the  outer 
court,  Bi  represents  one  of  the  smaller  shrines  of  which  there 
were  many  within  the  sacred  area  to  the  gods  and  goddesses 
associated  with  the  cult  of  Enlil  and  Ninlil.  See  Hilprecht,  Ex- 
cavation:^  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  p.  470,  and  the  detailed  plans 
and  drawings  in  C.  S.  Fisher,  Excavations  at  Nippur. 
Fig.  2.     Plan  of  the  Temple  of  Anu  and  Adad  at  Ashur. 

The  temple  was  originally  built  in  honour  of  Anu,  the  solar 
deity  (who  is  replaced  by  Ashur)  but  at  a  very  early  date,  Adad 
(or  Ramman)  was  associated  with  him.  The  two  temples,  con- 
sistently referred  to  in  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  as  the  "Temple 
of  Anu  and  Adad,"  have  a  large  entrance  court  in  common. 
Behind  this  court  lie  the  tw^o  temples  proper,  each  having  (a)  a 
broad  outer  court,  (b)  an  oblong  inner  court,  leading  (c)  to  the 
sacred  chamber  where  the  images  of  Anu- Ashur  and  Adad,  re- 
spectively, stood.  This  deviation  from  the  Babylonian  model, 
a  broad  outer  and  an  oblong  inner  court  instead  of  two  practic- 
ally parallel  courts,  is  typical  of  Assyrian  scared  architecture. 
Each  temple  has  its  Zikkurat  immediately  adjoining  it.  See 
Andrae,  Der  Anu- Adad  Tenipel  (Leipzig,  1909),  PI.  V.,  and 
especially  pp.  80-84. 


Fig.  I.     Plan  of  Temple 
of  Enlil  at  Nippur 


I  TK  TE.MPEL   EROAVZT 


Fig.  2.     Plan  of  Anu-Adad  Temple  at  Ashur 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults      293 

narrow  inner  court,  and  the  "holy  of  holies,"^  where 
in  place  of  the  statue  of  the  deity  was  the  sacred  box 
(or  "Ark")  with  the  Cherubim  over  it  as  the  symbol 
of  Jahweh. 

The  history  of  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  temples 
and  their  zikkurats  furnishes  an  index  to  the  religious 
fervour  of  the  rulers.  The  records  left  by  rulers  of 
the  oldest  period  are  in  the  main  votive  inscriptions, 
indicative  of  their  activity  in  building  or  rebuilding 
religious  edifices.  Conquerors,  like  Sargon  and  Ham- 
murapi,  are  proud  of  the  title  of  "builder"  of  this  or 
that  temple;  and  their  example  is  followed  by  the 
war-lords  of  Assyria,  who  interrupt  the  narration  of 
their  military  exploits  by  detailed  accounts  of  their 
pious  labours  in  connection  with  the  great  sanctuaries 
of  the  country.  Taking  the  temples  at  Nippur,  Sip- 
par,  Babylon,  and  Ashur  as  typical  examples,  we 
find  a  long  chain  of  rulers  leaving  records  of  their 
building  activities  in  these  centres.  Kings  of  Kish, 
Uruk,  Ur,  and  Agade  vie  with  the  rulers  of  Babylon 
and  Nineveh  in  paying  homage  to  the  "mountain 
house"  at  Nippur,  repairing  the  decayed  portions, 

'  See  Andrae,  Der  Anu-Adad-Tempel  in  Assur  (Leipzig,  1909), 
pp.  82  seq.  There  was,  as  Andrae  has  shown,  an  important  varia- 
tion in  the  interior  arrangement  of  the  Assyrian  temples  from  that 
followed  in  Babylonia.  Instead  of  an  outer  and  an  inner  court 
of  the  same  width,  the  inner  court  in  Assyrian  temples  was  narrow 
and  long.  This  departure  from  the  Babylonian  type  may  be 
due,  as  Andrae  thinks,  to  Hittite  or  Syrian  influence.  See  the 
illustrations  on  Plate  24. 


294  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

extending  its  dimensions,  and  adding  to  the  mass  of 
its  zikkurat.  They  dedicate  the  spoils  of  war  to  EnUl 
and  deposit  votive  offerings  in  his  shrine.  From 
Sargon  of  Agade  to  Ashurbanapal  of  Nineveh,  E-Kur 
continued  to  be  a  place  of  pilgrimage  whither  the 
rulers  went  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  Enlil, 
and  of  his  consort  Ninlil.  Long  indeed  after  the 
tutelary  deity  of  the  city  had  been  forgotten,  the  city 
retained  its  odour  of  sanctity,  and  the  temple  area 
became  a  burial-place  for  Jews  and  Christians,  who 
bear  witness  to  the  persistence  of  time-worn  beliefs  by 
inscribing  in  Aramaic  dialects  on  clay  bowls  incan- 
tations against  the  demons  of  ancient  Babylonia,  be- 
lief in  whose  power  to  inflict  injury  on  the  dead  had 
not  yet  evaporated  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries 
of  oiir  era.  ^ 

The  last  king  of  Babylonia,  Nabonnedos  (555-539 
B.C.),  who  aroused  the  hostility  of  Marduk  and  the 
priests  of  Esagila  by  his  preference  for  the  sun-god,'' 
gives  us,  in  connection  with  his  restoration  of  the 
temple  of  Shamash  at  Sippar,  the  history  of  that  time- 
honoured  sanctuary.  As  an  act  of  piety  to  the 
memory  of  past  builders,  it  became  an  established 
duty  in  Babylonia  to  unearth  the  old  foundation  stone 
of  a  temple  before  the  work  of  restoration  could  be 

^  A  publication  of  some  forty  clay  bowls  from  Nippur  is  an- 
nounced by  Prof.  J.  A.  Montgomery  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. '  See  above,  p.  59. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults      295 

begun.  On  that  stone  the  name  of  the  builder  was 
inscribed,  generally  with  a  curse  on  him  who  re- 
moved it  or  substituted  his  name  for  the  one  there 
written.  After  many  efforts  the  workmen  of  Na- 
bonnedos  succeeded  in  finding  the  stone,  and  the 
king  tells  us  how  he  trembled  with  excitement  and 
awe  when  he  read  on  it  the  name  of  Naram-Sin.  In- 
cidentally, he  gives  us  the  date  of  Naram-Sin,  who, 
he  says,  ruled  3200  years  before  him.  It  is  one  of  the 
many  great  triumphs  of  modern  investigation  that  we 
can  actually  correct  the  scribes  of  Naram-Sin,  who 
made  a  mistake  of  over  1000  years.'  Nabonnedos 
mentions  also  the  names  of  Hammurapi  and  Burna- 
buriash  as  among  those  who,  many  centuries  before 
him,  repaired  this  ancient  edifice,  after,  it  had  fallen 
into  decay  through  lapse  of  ages.  Toward  the  end 
of  the  Cassite  dynasty  {ca.  1200  B.C.)  nomadic  hordes 
devastated  the  country,  and  the  cult  suffered  a  long 
interruption,  but  E-Barra  was  restored  to  much  of  its 
former  grandeur  by  Nebopaliddin  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, and  from  this  time  down  to  the  time  of  Nabon- 
nedos, it  continued  to  be  an  object  of  great  care  on 
the  part  of  both  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  kings. 
Esarhaddon,  Ashurbanapal,  Nabopolassar,  and  Ne- 
buchadnezzar are  among  those  who  during  this  later 

*  See  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  ii.,  i  pp.  344  seq.,  on  the 
basis  of  Lehmann-Haupt,  Zwei  Hauptprobleme  der  AUoriental- 
ischen  Chronologie,  pp.  186  seq. 


296  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

period  left  records  of  their  activity  at  E-Barra,  the 
"house  of  splendour"  at  Sippar. 


It  is  now  incumbent  on  us  to  turn  to  the  cult 
fostered  at  these  sanctuaries  in  the  south  and  the 
north.  At  the  outset  of  this  discussion  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  many  of  the  details  are  still  lost. 
We  have,  to  be  sure,  in  the  library  of  Ashurbanapal 
the  material  for  a  reconstruction  of  the  cult  at  the 
great  centres,  through  the  collection  which  this  king 
made  of  hymns  and  incantations,  omens  and  rituals, 
that  formed  part  of  the  temple  archives  and  of  the 
equipment  of  the  temple-schools  at  Nippur,  Ur,  Sip- 
par,  Babylon,  Borsippa,  Cuthah,  Urul<:,  and  no  doubt, 
at  many  other  places,  though  the  bulk  of  the  material 
appears  to  have  come  from  two  temples,  E-Sagila  at 
Babylon  and  E-Zida  in  Borsippa.^  This  material  is, 
however,  in  an  almost  bewildering  state  of  confusion, 
and  many  investigations  of  special  features  will  have 
to  be  made  before  it  can  be  arranged  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  give  a  connected  picture  of  the  general 
cult.  Fortunately,  we  have  also,  as  supplementary 
to  this  material,  original  texts,  belonging  to  the  oldest 
period, — chiefly  hymns,  litanies,  and  lamentations, — 

'See  the  writer's  paper  " Did  the  Babylonian  Temples  Have 
Libraries?"  (Journal  of  the  Amer.  Oriental  Society,  vol.  xxvi., 
pp.  1735^2.) 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       297 

which  written  in  Sumerian,  have  recently  been  care- 
fully studied  and  are  now  pretty  well  understood. ' 

The  omen  texts,  including  the  omens  of  liver 
divinations,  the  astrological  collections,  and  the  mis- 
cellaneous classes  of  omens,  may  be  excluded  from 
the  cult  proper.  Interpretations  of  omens,  at  all 
events,  do  not  form  an  integral  part  of  the  official  cult 
at  the  temples,  despite  the  fact  that  they  are  con- 
cerned chiefly  with  public  affairs  or  with  those  of 
the  royal  households,  which,  as  repeatedly  empha- 
sised,^ have  an  official  or  semi-official  rather  than  a 
personal  character.  They  might  be  designated  as 
religious  rites,  subsidiary  to  the  official  cult.  In  con- 
nection with  the  inspection  of  the  liver  of  the  sacri- 
ficial animal  there  was  an  invocation  to  Shamash, 
or  to  Shamash  and  Adad,  combined;  we  have  speci- 
mens of  such  appeals,  dating  from  Assyrian  days,  in 
which  the  sun-god  is  invoked  to  answer  questions 
through  the  medium  of  trustworthy  omens,  and  im- 
plored to  prevent  any  error  in  the  rites  about  to 
be  performed  which  would  naturally  vitiate  them.^ 

^  Chiefly  the  texts  published  in  Cuneiform  Texts,  Part  XV. .Plate 
10-23.  See  Zimmern,  "Tammuz  Lieder"  {Berichte  der  Kgl.  Sachs. 
Akad.  d.  Wiss.  Philol.-Histor.  Classe,  vol.  lix.,  pp.  201-252); 
Langdon,  Sumerian  and  Babylonian  Psalms  (Paris,  1909),  and 
the  various  papers  by  J.  D.  Prince  and  Frederick  Vanderburgh  in 
the  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society  and  in  the  Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Semitic  Languages.  ^  See  above,  p.  177. 

3  Knudtzon,  Assyrische  Gebete  an  den  Sonnengott,  pp.  73,  74,  etc, ; 
and  extracts  also  in  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),ii.,  pp.  300  seq. 


298  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

There  were,  however,  no  fixed  occasions  for  the  con- 
sultations of  livers.  Whenever  any  necessity  arose, 
as  before  a  battle  or  previous  to  some  important 
public  undertaking,  or  in  case  of  illness  or  some  acci- 
dent to  the  king  or  to  a  member  of  his  immediate 
household,  hepatoscopy  was  employed  to  determine 
the  attitude  of  the  gods  toward  the  land  or  toward  the 
royal  household.  Similarly,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
observation  of  the  heavenly  bodies  formed  the  per- 
petual concern  of  the  hdriX  priests.  Astrological  re- 
ports were  frequently  sent  to  the  rulers,  always  at 
new-moon  and  full-moon,  and  in  the  case  of  eclipse 
or  obscurations  of  the  moon's  or  sun's  surface  from 
any  cause  whatsoever.  In  cases  where  the  signs  of 
the  heavens  portended  evil,  expiatory  rites  were  pre- 
scribed, '  and  these  being  conducted  in  the  temples,  no 
doubt  formed  part  of  the  official  expiatory  ritual. 
The  ritual  on  these  occasions  is,  however,  indepen- 
dent of  the  observation  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and 
follows  as  an  attachment  to  the  omens  derived  from 
the  observation.  Finally,  the  miscellaneous  collec- 
tions of  omens,  are  merely  to  be  regarded  as  hand- 
books to  guide  the  hdril  priests  in  answering  questions 
that  might  be  put  to  them  concerning  any  unusual  or 

^  The  technical  term  for  these  rites  is  Nam-Bur-Bi,  on  which 
see  Behrens,  Assyrisch-Babylonisch  Brief e  religiosen  Inhalts,  pp. 
95-98,  and  Morgenstern,  Doctrine  of  Sin  in  the  Babylonian  Re- 
ligion, pp.  137  seq. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       299 

striking  appearance  among  men  or  animals,  or  in 
nature  in  general.  Every  unusual  happening  being 
regarded  as  a  sign  from  some  god  or  goddess,  it  be- 
came the  priest's  business  to  determine  its  import. 
Although  he  did  this  in  his  official  capacity,  the  act  of 
securing  and  furnishing  the  interpretation  formed  no 
part  of  the  ritual;  and  the  omens,  even  in  these  in- 
stances, frequently  bore  on  the  public  welfare  rather 
than  on  the  fate  or  fortune  of  the  individual.  Such 
interpellations  and  decisions  might  be  compared  to 
the  inquiries  regarding  ritualistic  observances  put 
to  the  Jewish  Rabbis  from  Talmudic  times  down  to 
our  days  in  orthodox  circles,  which  gave  rise  to  an 
extensive  branch  of  Rabbinical  literature  technically 
known  as  "Questions  and  Answers."^ 

An  intermediate  position  between  the  official  and 
the  extra-official  cult  is  held  by  the  incantation  formu- 
las, and  the  observances  connected  therewith.  In 
this  branch  of  religious  literattire  the  layman  re- 
ceived a  large  share  of  attention — larger  even  than  in 
the  case  of  the  miscellaneous  omens  dealing  with  oc- 
currences in  daily  life.  In  so  far  as  the  incantations 
represent  the  practices  supplementary  to  medicinal 
treatment  to  release  individuals  from  the  tortures  of 
the  demons,  or  from  the  control  of  the  sorcerers,  they 
partake  of  the  nature  of  private  rites,  which,  although 

^  See  the  article  "Sheal6tu-Teshub6th  "  in  the  Jewish  Encyclo- 
pedia, vol.  xi,  pp.  240-250. 


300  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

observed  under  the  guidance  and  superintendence  of 
priests,  can  be  regarded  only  in  a  limited  sense  as 
forming  part  of  the  official  cult. 

Nevertheless,  we  must  be  careful  not  to  draw  the 
dividing  line  between  public  and  private  rites  too 
sharply.  Even  incantations,  when  performed  for 
individuals,  have  their  official  side;  for  the  ritual  ac- 
companying them  is  derived  from  the  observances  pre- 
scribed more  particularly  for  the  rulers  on  occasions 
of  public  misfortune.  At  such  times  the  endeavour 
was  made  to  appease  the  gods  through  the  chant- 
ing of  lamentations,  through  confession  of  guilt,  and 
through  expiatory  sacrifices  and  atonement  cere- 
monies. The  incantations  themselves  abound  in 
references  to  the  public  welfare.  The  technical  term 
sJiiptu  ("incantation"),  by  which  they  are  known,  is 
extended  to  hymns — a  valuable  indication  that  the 
hymnal  literature  is  an  outgrowth  from  incantations, 
and  that  the  primary  purpose  of  these  hymns  was 
neither  praise,  thanksgiving,  nor  tribute,  but  the 
reconciliation  of  the  gods,  who  had  shown  their  dis- 
pleasure in  some  manner,  or  had  sent  advance  signals 
of  an  impending  catastrophe. 

Dr.  Langdon^  believes  he  has  found  evidence  that 

^  See  his  paper,  "  A  Chapter  from  the  Babylonian  Books  of 
Private  Penance,"  in  the  Transactions  of  the  3d  International 
Congress  of  the  History  of  Religion  (1908),  vol.  i.,  pp.  248  565.,  and 
Introduction  to  his  Sumerian  and  Babylonian  Psalms  (Paris, 
1909). 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults      301 

the  incantation  rites  were  originally  performed  over 
afflicted  persons  in  huts  erected  preferably  on  the 
bank  of  a  flowing  stream,  and  that  therefore  at  this 
stage  of  their  development  they  formed  no  part  of  the 
official  cult  of  the  temples.  On  the  basis  of  this  evi- 
dence he  distinguishes  between  public  and  private 
services,  and  assigns  incantations  and  prayers,  de- 
signated as  shiptu,  to  the  private  service.  Without 
entering  into  a  detailed  examination  of  this  theory 
here,  but  even  accepting  its  full  force,  it  would  prove 
only  that  the  Babylonian  religion  contains  survivals 
of  the  early  period  when  magic — in  its  widest  sense 
— formed  the  chief  element  in  the  religion;  or  (ac- 
cording to  those  scholars,  who  like  Mr.  J.  G.  Frazer,^ 
separate  magic  from  religion)  of  that  period  when 
magic  held  sway  to  the  exclusion  of  religion.  At  all 
events,  the  incantation  rites,  whatever  their  original 
character,  were  taken  over  into  the  official  cult — as 
Langdon  also  admits — and  this  fact  carries  with  it. 


^  See  the  discussion  on  "Magic  and  Religion"  in  the  2d  ed.  of 
Frazer's  Golden  Bough,  vol.  i.,  pp.  62  seq.,  and  Andrew  Lang's 
reply  in  Magic  and  Religion,  which  though  unfair  (and  at 
times  offensive)  in  its  tone  against  a  scholar  of  such  vastly 
superior  erudition  as  Mr.  Frazer,  nevertheless  refutes  (as  I  be- 
lieve) the  position  that  magic  preceded  and  is  a  distinct  stage 
from  religion.  Whatever  our  definition  of  religion  may  be,  the 
religious  element  is  never  lacking  even  in  the  most  primitive 
form  of  magic.  Magic  is  a  very  poor  sort  of  a  religion — but  it 
is  religious,  though  for  the  sake  of  human  dignity  one  may  be 
loath  to  admit  it. 


302  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

I  think,  the  conclusion  that  the  dshipu,  as  the 
"magician"  or  exorciser  was  generally  called,  was  a 
member  of  the  priestly  organisation.  Even  the  early 
examples  of  incantations  at  hand  reveal  their  official 
character  by  the  introduction  of  such  terms  for  the 
various  classes  of  incantations  as  "house  of  light," 
"house  of  washing,"  and  "house  of  baptism,"'  and 
show  that  we  are  long  past  the  stage  when  magic  was, 
if  ever,  an  extra-official  rite. 

We  are  justified,  however,  in  drawing  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  incantation  rituals — ^including  under 
this  term  both  the  collection  of  the  magic  formu- 
las and  the  rites  to  be  performed  in  connection 
with  them  —  represent  a  link  between  the  more 
primitive  featiures  of  the  Babylonian  religion,  and 
those  elements  which  reflect  the  later  period  of  an 
organised  and  highly  specialised  priesthood,  with  a 
correspondingly  elaborate  organisation  of  the  cult. 
To  dogmatise  about  the  phases  of  that  cult,  and 
to  declare  the  incantation  ritual  to  be  the  oldest 
division  is  hazardous,  especially  in  the  present  state 
of  oiu"  knowledge,  but,  I  think,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  the  beliefs  and  practices  found  in  this  ritual 
bring  us  close  to  the  earliest  aspects  of  the  popular 
religion. 

^  These  terms,  referring  originally  to  the  particular  place  where 
incantation  rites  were  employed,  became  the  designations  of  the 
formulas  recited  in  those  places. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       303 

VI 

It  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  the  jumble  of  often 
meaningless  formulas  in  the  incantation  texts,  with 
their  accompaniment  of  rites,  originating  in  the  lowest 
kind  of  sympathetic  and  imitative  magic,  should  have 
been  evolved  by  the  same  priests  who  added  to  these 
earlier  elements,  and  frequently  overshadowed  them 
by  ethical  reflections,  emphasising  high  standards  of 
ethics;  they  also  attached  to  them  prayers  that 
breathe  a  comparatively  lofty  religious  spirit. 

But  not  always.  For  instance,  here  is  one  where 
there  are  almost  childish  invocations  to  the  evil 
spirits  to  leave  the  body  of  their  victim :  ^ 

Away,  away,  far  away,  far  away! 
For  shame,  for  shame,  fly  away,  fly  away! 
Round  about  face,  away,  far  away ! 
Out  of  my  body  away ! 
Out  of  my  body  far  away ! 
Out  of  my  body,  for  shame! 
Out  of  my  body,  fly  away ! 
Out  of  my  body,  face  about! 
Out  of  my  body,  go  away! 
Into  my  body  do  not  return ! 
To  my  body  do  not  approach! 
My  body  do  not  oppress ! 
By  Shamash,  the  mighty,  be  ye  exorcised! 
By  Ea,  the  lord  of  all,  be  ye  exorcised! 
By  Marduk,  the  chief  exorciser  of  the  gods,  be  ye  exor- 
cised ! 

^  MakM,  Incantation  Ritual,  Tablet  V.,  lines  166-184.  See 
Jastrow,  Religion,  Engl,  edition,  pp.  287  seq.,  German  ed.,  i., 
pp.  302-320. 


304  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

By  Gish-Bar,^  your  consumer,  be  ye  exorcised! 
Be  ye  restrained  from  my  body ! 

But  in  the  midst  of  these  we  find  introduced  prayers 
to  various  deities  of  which  the  following,  addressed 
to  the  fire-god,  may  serve  as  an  example: 

O  Nusku,2  great  god,  counsellor  of  the  great  gods, 

Guardian  of  the  offerings  of  all  the  Igigi,^ 

Founder  of  cities,  renewer  of  sanctuaries, 

Glorious  day,  4  of  supreme  command, 

Messenger  of  Anu.s  obedient  to  the  oracle  of  Enlil, 

Obedient  to  Enlil,  the  counsellor,  the  mountain  *5  of  the 

Igigi- 
Mighty  in  battle,  of  powerful  attack, 
O,  Nusku,  consumer,  overpowering  the  enemy, 
Without  thee  no  table  is  spread  in  the  temple, ' 
Without  thee  the  great  gods  do  not  inhale  the  incense, 
Without   thee,   Shamash,   the  judge  executes  no  judg- 
ment. 8 

The  hymn  glides  almost  imperceptibly  into  an  ap- 
peal to  burn  the  sorcerer  and  sorceress: 

^  The  god  of  fire. 
=  Also  the  god  of  fire. 

3  A  collective  name  for  the  lower  order  of  gods. 

4  An  allusion  to  the  bright  light  of  the  fire  which  is  compared 
to  the  brilliant  dayhght. 

5  The  god  of  heaven,  an  allusion  to  the  sun  as  the  heavenly 
fire. 

^  A  frequent  epithet  of  Enlil,  the  storm-god  (see  above,  p.  68), 
who  is  the  guardian  of  the  lightning,  another  aspect  of  fire.  In 
India,  too,  we  find  these  three  aspects  of  the  fire — the  earthly 
fire,  the  sun,  and  the  lightning.  See  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India, 
p.  105. 

'  Allusion  to  the  fire  as  consuming  the  offerings  on  the  altar. 

8  A  reference  to  the  sacrifices  offered  to  Shamash,  the  sun- 
god,  through  whom  just  decisions  are  granted. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       305 

I  turn  to  thee,  I  implore  thee,  I  raise  my  hands  to  thee,  I  sink 

down  at  thy  feet, 
Bum  the  sorcerer  and  the  witch! 
Blast  the  life  of  the  dreaded  sorcerer  and  the  witch ! 
Let  me  live  that  I  may  make  thy  heart  glad,  and  humbly  pay 

homage  to  thee. 

Both  the  incantation  formulas  and  the  impres- 
sive prayers  assume,  as  an  accompanying  rite,  the 
burning  of  an  image,  or  of  some  symbol  of  the  witch 
or  sorcerer.^  This  is  done,  in  the  firm  beHef  that  the 
symbolical  destruction  will  be  followed  by  a  genuine 
release  from  their  grasp.  And  yet  it  is  evident  that 
the  incantation  texts  and  incantation  rituals  re- 
present a  composite  production,  receiving  their  final 
shape  as  the  result  of  the  collaboration  of  m.any 
hands.  Primitive  and  popular  elements  were  com- 
bined with  doctrines  and  practices  which,  developed 
in  the  schools  of  theological  speculation,  furnished 
an  outlet  for  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  activity  of 
those  to  whom,  as  the  special  servitors  of  the  gods  and 
as  the  mediators  between  the  gods  and  the  populace, 
the  unfolding  of  the  religious  life  of  the  country  was 
entrusted. 

The  influence  of  the  religious  theories  elaborated  by 
the  priests  is  to  be  seen  in  the  prominence  given  to  the 
idea  of  purification  throughout  the  incantation  rituals. 

^  The  instructions  added  to  the  formulas  and  prayers  specify 
that  the  image  is  to  be  of  honey,  wax,  tallow,  pitch,  clay,  meal, 
of  binu,  or  of  cedar  wood,  or  of  copper,  a  different  formula  being 
prescribed  for  each  material. 


3o6  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

The  idea  itself,  to  be  sure,  belongs  to  the  primitive 
notion  of  tahoo,  which  specifies  an  "unclean"  con- 
dition, due  to  contact  with  something  either  too 
sacred  or  too  profane  to  be  touched,  but  the  applica- 
tion of  the  tahoo  to  all  circumstances  for  which  in- 
cantation rites  are  required  takes  us  beyond  the 
well-defined  limits  of  primitive  conceptions.  Under 
the  influence  of  the  purification  scheme,  the  primi- 
tive rites  of  sympathetic  magic  receive  a  new  and 
higher  interpretation.  They  become  symbolical 
ceremonies,  intended  to  emphasise  the  single  aim 
of  one  who  has  fallen  under  the  spell  of  evil  spirits  to 
cleanse  himself  from  the  sickness,  or  the  misfortune, 
whatever  its  nature,  that  has  been  brought  upon  him.  * 

I  have  washed  my  hands,  I  have  cleansed  my  body,* 
With  the  pure  spring- water  which  flows  forth  in  the  city  of  Eridu. 
All  that  is  evil,  all  that  is  not  good, 
Which  is  in  my  body,  my  flesh,  and  my  sinews, 
The  evil  dream  at  night,  the  evil  signs  and  omens  that  are  not 
good. 

Instead  of  the  common  exorcisers — medicine-men 
and  lay  magic- workers, — we  find  the  officials  of  the 
temple  combining  with  the  primitive  rites  an  appeal 
to  the  gods,   particularly   Ea,   Marduk,   Nusku   (or 

^  MaklH,  Incantation  Ritual,  Tablet  VIL,  1 15-120. 

2  The  same  association  of  cleanliness  and  godliness  passes 
on  to  modern  days,  as,  e.g.,  in  Bishop  Berkeley's  panacea  of  tar- 
water  for  all  bodily  ills,  which  was  supposed  to  cleanse  the  mind 
as  well  as  the  body.  See  Fraser,  Life  and  Letters  of  George  Berke- 
ley, pp.  292  seq. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       307 

Girru),  Shamash,  Adad,  and  the 'Anunnaki.^  Dis- 
ease becomes,  under  this  aspect  of  higher  purifica- 
tion, the  punishment  for  sins  committed  against  the 
gods,  and,  gradually,  the  entire  incantation  ritual 
assumes  the  colour  of  an  expiatory  ceremony. 

An  occasion  is  thus  found  for  the  introduction  of 
the  ethical  spirit,  the  desire  to  become  reconciled  with 
the  gods  by  leading  a  pure  and  clean  life — corre- 
sponding to  the  material  cleanliness,  which  the  sup- 
pliant hopes  to  attain  by  the  incantation  rites. 
Hence,  in  the  midst  of  a  collection  of  incantation 
formulas,  based  on  the  most  primitive  kind  of  sym- 
pathetic magic,  we  meet  not  merely  prayers  to  gods 
that  represent  a  far  higher  grade  of  thought,  but  also 
ethical  considerations,  embodied  in  the  enumeration 
of  a  long  category  of  possible  sins  that  the  suppliant 
for  divine  forgiveness  may  have  committed.  The 
question  is  asked  why  punishment  in  the  shape  of 
bodily  tortures  was  sent,  and  incidental  thereto  the 
Biblical  ten  commandments  are  paralleled.^ 

Has  he  estranged  father  from  son? 

Has  he  estranged  son  from  father? 

Has  he  estranged  mother  from  daughter? 

Has  he  estranged  daughter  from  mother? 

Has  he  estranged  mother-in-law  from  daughter-in-law? 

Has  he  estranged  daughter-in-law  from  mother-in-law? 

*  For  other  gods  playing  a  more  or  less  prominent  part,  see 
Morgenstem,  Doctrine  of  Sin,  chap.  v. 

'  Shurpu,  Incantation  Ritual,  Tablet  II.,  20-67.  Seejastrow, 
Religion,  Engl,  ed.,  pp.  290  seg.;   German  ed.,  i.,  pp.  325  seq. 


3o8  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Has  he  estranged  brother  from  brother? 

Has  he  estranged  friend  from  friend? 

Has  he  estranged  companion  from  companion?^ 

Has  he  not  released  a  prisoner,  has  he  not  loosened  the  bound 
one  ? 

Has  he  not  permitted  the  prisoner  to  see  the  light? 

Has  he  in  the  case  of  the  captive,  commanded,  "  take  hold  of 
him,"  in  the  case  of  one  bound  (said),  "  bind  liim!"' 

Is  it  a  sin  against  a  god,  a  transgression  against  a  goddess  ? 

Has  he  offended  a  god,  neglected  a  goddess? 

Was  his  sin  against  his  god,  was  his  wrong  toward  his  goddess? 

An  offence  against  his  ancestor,  3[?]  hatred  toward  his  elder 
brother? 

Has  he  neglected  father  or  mother,  insulted  the  elder  sister? 

Given  too  little,  refused  the  larger  amount  ?4 

For  "  no  "  said  "yes,"  for  "  yes "  said  "  no  " ? 

Has  he  used  false  weights  ? 

Has  he  taken  the  wrong  sum,  not  taken  the  correct  amount? s 

Has  he  disinherited  the  legitimate  son,  has  he  upheld  an  illegiti- 
mate son? 

Has  he  drawn  a  false  boundary,  not  drawn  the  right  boundary? 

Has  he  removed  the  limit,  mark,  or  boundary? 

Has  he  possessed  himself  ^  of  his  neighbour's  house? 

Has  he  shed  his  neighbour's  blood? 

Has  he  stolen  his  neighbour's  garment? 

Has  he  not  released  a  freedman  [?]  out  of  his  family? 

Has  he  divided  a  family  once  united? 

Has  he  set  himself  up  against  a  superior? 

Was  his  mouth  frank,  but  his  heart  false? 

Was  it  "yes"  with  his  mouth,  but  "no"  with  his  heart? 

Has  he  taught  what  was  impure,  instructed  in  what  was  not 
proper? 

^  I.e.,  Has  he  sown  dissensions  among  the  members  of  a  family 
or  among  friends? 

*  I.e.,  is  he  a  ruler  who  has  exercised  unnecessary  cruelty? 

3  The  exact  meaning  of  the  word  used  is  not  known. 

4/.e.,  Has  he  cheated?  ^  Literally  "entered." 

5  I.e.,  Has  he  defrauded? 


PI.  25.     Fig.   I.     Exorcising  Demons  of  Disease. 

Bronze  tablet  in  the  de  Clercq  collection  (Paris).  The  figure 
at  the  top  is  a  typical  demon.  In  the  uppermost  row  are  the 
symbols  of  the  gods  similar  to  those  found  on  Boundary  Stones 
(see  comment  to  PI.  22).  Those  here  depicted  are  Anu  f shrine 
with  tiara),  Ea  (mace  with  ram's  head),  Adad  (lightning  fork), 
Marduk  (spear-head),  Nebo  (double  staff),  Ishtar  (eight-pointed 
star),  Shamash  (sun  disc).  Sin  (crescent),  Sibitti  (seven  circles). 
The  second  row  shows  the  group  of  seven  demons  so  frequently 
referred  to  in  the  incantation  texts  (p.  310  seq.).  In  the  third 
row,  the  exorcising  ceremonial  is  depicted.  The  afflicted  sufferer 
lies  on  a  bed,  at  either  end  of  which  stands  an  officiating  exorciser, 
clad  in  a  fish  robe  as  the  priest  of  Ea,  the  god  of  the  waters,  who 
with  Girru  or  Nusku,  the  god  of  fire,  plays  a  chief  part  in  the 
incantation  ritual.  The  demon  behind  the  fish-priest  to  the  right 
seems  to  be  warding  off  the  two  other  demons,  while  behind  the 
other  fish-priest  is  an  altar  with  a  lamp — the  symbol  of  Nusku, 
the  fire-god.  In  the  third  compartment  are  various  objects: 
two  jars,  a  bowl,  a  water  bag,  and  articles  of  food — intended 
probably  as  offerings  to  the  demons.  In  the  centre  is  the  demon 
Labartu  holding  a  serpent  in  each  hand,  a  swine  at  each  breast,  and 
resting  with  one  knee  on  an  ass — the  symbol  of  Labartu.  The  ass 
is  lying  on  a  ship,  the  water  being  indicated  by  swimming  fishes. 
Lastly,  to  the  left  of  Labartu  is  another  demon  in  a  threatening 
attitude  with  a  whip  in  his  upraised  hand — perhaps  a  protecting 
demon,  driving  off  the  cruel  Labartu,  who  sails  away  in  her  ship. 
The  reverse  shows  the  back  of  the  demon  looking  over  the  head 
of  the  tablet.  Other  tablets  of  this  nature — in  bronze  or  stone — 
have  been  found,  showing  more  or  less  significant  variations.  Up 
to  the  present  eight  such  specimens  are  known.  See  Frank, 
Babylonische  Beschivorungsreliefs  (Leipzig,  1908). 
Fig.  2.     Types  of  Demons. 

Now  in  the  British  Museum.     See  R.  C.  Thompson,  The  Devils, 
and  Evil  Spirits  of  Babylonia  (London,  1903),  vol.  i.,  PI.  II. 


-  ?r 


Fi< 


I.     Exorcising  Demons  of  Disease 


Fig.  2.     Types  of  Demons 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       309 

Did  he  follow  the  path  of  evil? 

Did  he  overstep  the  bounds  of  what  was  just? 

In  contrast  -Rath  this  high  plane,  which  is,  however, 
not  infrequently  reached  in  the  incantation  rituals, 
the  accompan^dng  ceremonies  remain  persistently  on 
the  same  level  which  we  find  in  primitive  religions 
everywhere.  Nor  will  it  escape  the  attention  of  the 
careful  student  that  the  possible  sins  enumerated 
pass  indiscriminately  from  ritualistic  errors  to  moral 
offences.  Nevertheless,  and  with  due  regard  for  the 
obvious  limitation  of  the  ethical  principles  introduced, 
the  wide  departure  from  the  starting-point  of  in- 
cantation formulas  must  be  given  full  recognition. 
One  cannot  question  that  in  this  strikingly  modified 
and  advanced  form,  even  though  the  rites  themselves 
continued  to  rest  on  an  essentially  primitive  basis, 
the  incantation  cult  exercised  an  elevating  influence 
and,  at  all  events,  acted  as  a  moral  restraint. 

The  evil  spirits,  supposed  to  cause  sickness  and 

other    ills,    were    of    various    kinds,  and  each   class 

appears  to  have    had    its    special  fimction.      Some 

clearly  represent  the  shades  of   the   departed,^  who 

return   to    earth    to   plague   the    living;    others   are 

personifications  of  certain  diseases.     The  existence  of 

special  demons  for  consumption  (or  wasting  disease), 

fever,  ague,  and  headache  forms    a  curious  parallel 

^  Known  as  etimmu — which  is  the  usual  term  for  the  shade 
of  the  departed — or  utukku.  For  other  names,  see  Morgenstern, 
Doctrine  of  Sin,  p.  12. 


310  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

to  specialisation  in  the  practice  of  modem  medicine. 
There  was  even  a  "gynecological"  demon,  known  as 
Labartu,  whose  special  function  it  was  to  attack  wo- 
men in  childbirth,  and  steal  the  offspring.  Other 
demons  appear  to  have  been  associated  chiefly  with 
the  terrors  of  the  storm,  or  with  the  night,  while 
some  seem  to  have  been  of  a  general  character  or, 
if  they  had  a  special  function,  it  has  not  as  yet  been 
discovered.  Their  general  dwelling  place  was  in  the 
nether  world — the  domain  of  Nergal,  the  god  of  pes- 
tilence and  death.  The  names  given  to  these  demons, 
such  as  "pestilence,"  the  "seizer,"  the  "one  lying  in 
wait,"  "destroyer,"  "storm,"  illustrate  the  uncom- 
promisingly forbidding  and  gloomy  views  held  of 
them,  which  is  even  further  emphasised  by  the  terrify- 
ing shapes  given  to  them — leopards,  dragons,  serpents, 
etc.  Not  confined  solely  to  the  nether  world,  their 
presence  was  also  seen  in  the  angry  clouds  that  rolled 
across  the  heavens,  their  voice  was  heard  in  the  storms 
that  swept  over  the  land.  They  come  up  from  their 
habitation  and  conceal  themselves  in  dark  holes  and 
unsuspected  crannies,  ready  to  pounce  upon  their  vic- 
tims unawares.  In  short,  like  the  modern  "germs" 
of  which  they  are  the  remote  prototypes,  they  are 
universal  and  everywhere.  They  move  preferably  in 
groups  of  seven  ^: 

'  Utukkulimnuti  Ritual,  Tablet  V.,  col.  ii.,  65— iii.,  25.     See 
Thompson,  Devils  and  Evil  Spirits  of  Babylonia,  i.,  pp.  62  seq. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults      311 

Destructive  storms  and  evil  winds  are  they, 

A  storm  of  evil,  presaging  the  baneful  storm, 

A  storm  of  evil,  forerunner  of  the  baneful  storm. 

Mighty  children,  mighty  sons  are  they, 

Messengers  of  Namtar  are  they, 

Throne-bearers  of  Ereshkigal.  ^ 

The  flood  driving  through  the  land  are  they. 

Seven  gods  of  the  wide  heavens, 

Seven  gods  of  the  broad  earth, 

Seven  robber  gods  are  they. 

Seven  gods  of  universal  sway. 

Seven  evil  gods, 

Seven  evil  demons. 

Seven  evil  and  violent  demons, 

Seven  in  heaven,  seven  on  earth. 

Another  incantation  thus  describes  them^: 

Neither  male  nor  female  are  they. 
Destructive  whirlwinds  they. 
Having  neither  wife  nor  offspring. 
Compassion  and  mercy  they  do  not  know. 
Prayer  and  supplication  they  do  not  hear. 
Horses  reared  in  the  mountains. 

Hostile  to  Ea. 
Throne-bearers  of  the  gods  are  they. 
Standing  on  the  highway,  befouling  the  street. 
Evil  are  they,  evil  are  they. 
Seven  they  are,  seven  they  are, 

Twice  seven  they  are. 

Or  again,  in  illustration  of  their  ability  to  penetrate 
everywhere^: 

^  The  mistress  of  the  nether  world,  while  Namtar  is  the  god  of 
pestilence. 

2  Same  series,  Tablet  V.,  col.  v.,  38-57.  Thompson,  I.e.,  p. 
76  seq. 

5  Tablet  V.,  col.  i.,  25-39.     Thompson,  I.e.,  p.  52  seq. 


312  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

The  high  enclosures,  the  broad  enclosures  Hke  a  flood  they  pass 

th-TOugh. 
From  house  to  house  they  dash  along. 
No  door  can  shut  them  out, 
No  bolt  can  turn  them  back. 
Through  the  door,  like  a  snake,  they  glide. 
Through  the  hinge,  Hke  the  wind,  they  storm. 
Tearing  the  wife  from  the  embrace  of  the  man, 
Snatching  the  child  from  the  knees  of  a  man,^ 
Driving  the  freedman  from  his  family  home. 

Such  are  the  demons  against  whom  man  had  contin- 
ually to  be  on  his  guard. 


VII 


To  summarise  the  incantation  cult,  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  indicate  that,  while,  as  we  have  seen, 
many  gods  are  appealed  to,  the  most  important  share 
in  the  rites  is  taken  by  water  and  fire — suggesting, 
therefore,  that  the  god  of  water — more  particularly  Ea 
— and  the  god  of  fire — appearing  under  various  desig- 
nations, Nusku,  Girru,  Gish-Bar — are  the  chief  deities 
on  which  the  ritual  itself  hinges.  Water  and  fire  are 
viewed  as  the  two  purifying  elements  above  all  others. 
The  "unclean"  person  was  sprinkled  with  water, 
while  the  priest  pronounced  certain  sacred  formulas, 
having  the  power  of  "cleansing"  a  patient  from  sick- 
ness.    The  water  was  of  course  specially  sanctified 

'  An  interesting  reference  to  a  widespread  custom  in  an- 
tiquity of  having  the  new-bom  child  received  on  the  knees  of 
the  father.     See  Job  iii.,  12. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       313 

for  this  purpose,  drawn  from  springs  or  sacred  streams, 
as  both  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  rivers  were  re- 
garded. There  was  probably  connected  with  ever\^ 
large  temple  one  or  more  springs,  and  a  bit  rimki  or 
"bath-house"^  where  the  purification  rites  were  per- 
formed, although  this  house  was  no  doubt  originally 
outside  of  the  temple  area  in  a  field  or  some  remote 
place.  We  are  reminded  of  the  "bath-house"  to 
this  day  attached  to  synagogues  of  the  rigid  or- 
thodox type,  whereto  the  women  resort  monthly  to 
cleanse  themselves.^  It  is  tempting  to  discern  in 
this  rite,  now  restricted  to  women,  who  represent 
everywhere  the  conservative  element  in  religion,  a 
survival  of  the  old  Babylonian  purification  ritual.  In- 
stead of  water,  oil  of  various  kinds  was  also  used. 
Details  of  the  rites  no  doubt  varied  in  different  cities, 
and  there  are  indications  that  the  ptirification  rites 
were,  even  in  later  times,  occasionally  performed  on 
the  banks  of  running  streams — perhaps  a  survival 
of  the  period  when  the  incantation  ritual  did  not  yet 
form  part  of  the  official  cult. 

By  the  side  of  the  "bath-house,"  we  meet  frequent 
references  to  a  hit  ntlri,  "house  of  light,"  and  it  is 
permissible  to  recognise  in  this  term  the  designation 
of  a  special  place  within  the  temple  area,  wherein  the 
purification  by  fire  was  completed. 

^  More  literally  "house  of  washing."     See  above,  p.  302. 
*  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  vol.  viii,  p.  588. 


314  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Originally,  no  doubt,  fire  was  used  as  a  means  of 
directly  destroying  the  demons  in  human  form — the 
sorcerers  and  witches — who,  either  of  their  own 
initiative,  or  at  the  instigation  of  those  who  had  in- 
voked their  aid,  had  cast  a  spell  upon  the  victims.  A 
favourite  method  employed  by  the  exorcisers  of  these 
demons  was  to  make  images  of  them,  modelled  in 
clay,  pitch,  tallow,  dough,  or  other  materials,'  that 
could  be  melted  or  destroyed  by  fire,  and  then  to 
throw  the  images  into  the  fire  to  the  accompaniment 
of  formulas  which  generally  expressed  the  hope  that, 
as  the  images  were  consumed,  the  sorcerers  and 
witches  might  feel  the  tortures  of  the  flames,  and  either 
flee  out  of  the  bodies  of  their  victims,  or  release  their 
hold  upon  them.  Parallels  to  this  procedure,  rest- 
ing entirely  on  sympathetic  magic,  are  to  be  found  in 
abundance  among  peoples  of  primitive  culture.^ 

There  was,  however,  another  aspect  of  fire.  As 
the  sacred  god-given  element,  the  flame  was  asso- 
ciated with  purity,  and  it  became  in  many  religions 
— notably  in  Zoroastrianism — a  symbol  of  life  it- 
self. Through  contact  with  it,  therefore,  freedom 
from  contamination  was  secured.  The  true  meaning 
of  the  practices  of  the  Canaanites,  who,  as  we  are 

^  See  above,  p.  305,  note  i. 

"The  common  practice  of  tying  knots  to  symbolise  the  tying 
of  the  witch  or  sorcerer,  and  imtying  knots  to  symbolise  the  re- 
lease of  the  victim  is  also  referred  to  in  the  Baby  Ionian- Assyrian 
incantations 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       315 

told,  caused  their  children  to  "pass  through  the  fire"  ^ 
(which  seemed  so  abhorrent  to  the  Hebrew  prophets) , 
was  a  desire  thoroughly  to  purify  the  new-born  child. 
Among  many  customs,  found  all  over  the  world,  illus- 
trative of  this  quality  of  fire,  it  is  sufficient  to  recall 
that  down  to  a  late  day  the  custom  obtained  among 
the  peasants  of  Germany — and,  perchance,  still  sur- 
vives in  remote  corners — of  driving  cattle  through  a 
fire  kindled  in  the  fields,  thereby  securing  immunity 
from  the  cattle  plague.  ^  In  the  case  of  the  sick,  and  of 
those  otherwise  afflicted,  the  contact  with  the  fire 
was  purely  symbolical — vicarious,  so  to  speak.  Be- 
sides the  method  just  described,  the  incantation  texts 
tell  us  of  various  objects,  such  as  certain  plants,  wood, 
wheat,  onions,  dates,  palm-blossoms,  wool,  and  seeds 
which  were  thrown  into  a  fire,  while  an  incantation 
was  recited  to  the  effect  that,  as  the  object  disappears 
in  the  fire  never  to  return,  so  the  man's  sins,  unclean- 
liness,  or  sickness  may  vanish  never  to  return.  One 
of  these  incantations  reads  ^: 

As  this  onion  is  peeled,  and  thrown  into  the  fire, 
Consiimed  by  Girru,^  never  again  to  be 
Planted  in  a  bed,  never  again  to  be  furrowed, 
Never  again  to  take  root, 

^  E.g.,  2  Kings  xvi.,  3;  Ezek.  xx.,  31;  cf.  Lev.  xviii.,  21. 
'  Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye,  Religion  oj  the  Teutons,  pp.  374 
seq. 

3  Shurpu  Incantation  Ritual,  Tablet  V.,  60-72. 

4  The  fire-god. 


31 6  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Its  stalk  never  to  grow  again,  never  to  see  the  shining  sun, 

Never  again  to  be  seen  on  the  table  of  god  or  king, 

So  may  the  curse,  the  ban,  pain  [?]  distress  [?] 

Sickness,  sighing,  sin,  transgression,  injury, 

Misdeed,  the  sickness  in  my  body,  which  is  in 

My  flesh  and  bowels  be  treated  like  this  onion, 

Be  consumed  this  day  by  Girru. 

May  the  ban  be  removed,  may  I  see  the  light  !^ 

But  while  water  and  fire  thus  constitute  the  chief 
factors  in  the  purification  rites,  the  ceremonies  them- 
selves are  further  complicated  by  elaborate  prepara- 
tions for  the  final  act  of  exorcising  the  demons,  or  of 
destroying  the  sorcerers  and  witches.  The  patient 
had  to  be  prepared  for  the  act.  The  exorcising  priests 
donned  special  garments — often  in  imitation  of  the 
god  in  whose  name  they  acted.  Pieces  of  flesh  and  a 
mixture  of  dates,  flour,  honey,  and  butter,  and  other 
viands  were  offered  to  the  demons  as  bribes,  that  they 
might  thus  be  made  more  kindly  disposed.  The  rites 
were  generally  performed  at  sunrise  or  shortly  be- 
fore— though  occasionally  also  at  night.  The  place 
where  they  were  to  be  performed  was  to  be  swept 
clean,  a  table  and  often  several  tables  were  set, 
whereon  the  objects  for  the  sacrifice  were  arranged, 
torches  were  lit,  libations  of  wine  poured  out,  and 
various  other  details  were  prescribed,  some  of  which 
are  not  at  all  clear.     In  connection  with  every  sep- 

»  This  wish,  with  which  every  section  of  this  part  of  the  ritual 
ends,  appears  to  be  an  allusion  to  the  "house  of  light"  in  which 
the  ceremony  took  place. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       317 

arate  act  of  preparation  a  formula  or  prayer  was  re- 
cited, and  great  care  was  exercised  that  every  detail 
should  be  carried  out  according  to  established  custom. 
The  slightest  error  might  vitiate  the  entire  ceremony. 

We  are  fortunate  in  having  several  pictorial  repre- 
sentations, on  bronze,  and  stone  tablets,  of  exorcising 
rites  ^  which  help  us  to  understand  the  directions  in  the 
text.  In  these  representations  we  see  the  seven  chief 
demons,  frequently  mentioned  in  the  incantation 
rituals,  grouped  together,  and  revealing  by  the  ex- 
pression of  their  faces  and  their  threatening  attitude 
their  nature  and  purpose.  The  afflicted  sufferer  is 
lying  on  a  bed  at  either  end  of  which  stands  an 
ashipu  C'exorciser")  or  mashmashu  ("purifier").^ 
The  protecting  deity  and  favourable  spirits  are  also 
portrayed  as  helping  to  ward  off  the  evil  demons. 
Labartu,  with  the  ass  as  her  attendant,  appears  in  the 
lowest  compartment,  where  also  are  seen  the  offerings 
to  appease  the  demons,  and  the  ceremonial  imple- 
ments used  in  the  incantation  ceremonies. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  these  puri- 
fication rites  were  always  and  everywhere  carried  out 

^  See  Plate  25,  Fig.  i.  Frank,  Babylonische  Beschwdrungsreliejs 
(Leipzig,  1908),  gave  the  correct  interpretation  of  these  monu- 
ments, which  had  hitherto  been  regarded  as  illustrations  of  the 
abode  of  the  dead  in  the  nether  world. 

2  The  more  common  designation  for  exorciser  was  ashipu. 
There  were  several  classes,  and  the  mashmashu  appears  to  have 
been  of  a  subordinate  class.  See  Morgenstem,  Doctrine  oj  Sin  in 
the  Babylonian  Religion,  pp.  39  seg. 


3i8  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

in  the  same  way.  The  variations  and  modifications 
seem  to  be  endless.  Instead  of  treating  the  sick 
man  in  his  apartment,  the  ceremonies  were  frequently 
enacted  on  the  roof  of  his  house,  and  this  appears  to 
have  been  quite  generally  the  case  when  the  deity 
especially  invoked  was  Ishtar.  Directions  are  given 
to  sweep  the  roof,  holy  water  is  sprinkled  over  it,  a 
table  is  spread  for  the  goddess  with  dates  and  a  mix- 
ture of  meal,  honey,  and  butter,  and  a  libation  of  wine 
is  poured  out. 

Sickness  itself  being  held  as  unclean,  purification 
rites  were  observed  on  recovery;  these  included  the 
purification  of  the  house  in  which  the  patient  had 
lain.  After  a  king's  recovery  from  illness,  the  direc- 
tions are  specific  that  in  addition  to  the  ceremonies 
around  the  king's  bed,  the  palace  was  to  be  purified  by 
passing  through  it  with  torches  and  censers.  In  the 
palace  court  seven  tables  must  be  spread  to  the  seven 
chief  deities,  with  offerings  of  various  kinds  of  bread, 
dates,  meal,  oil,  honey,  butter,  milk,  with  some  sweet 
drink.  Seven  censers  and  seven  vessels  of  wine  were 
furthermore  to  be  provided^  and  finally  a  lamb  for 
sacrifice.  Elsewhere,  we  are  told  that  for  the  purifi- 
cation of  a  house  that  had  in  any  way  become  unclean, 
the  rooms,  the  threshold,  the  court  roof,  beams,  and 
windows  must  be  touched  with  asphalt,  gypsum,  oil, 
honey,  butter,  or   holy   water.     Similar   ceremonies 

^See  Morgenstem,  Doctrine  oj  Sin,  pp.  120  seg 


PL  26.     Fig.  I.     King  Ashurbanapal,  King  of  Assyria  (668-626  b.c.)i  in  a 
lion  hunt  and  pouring  a  libation  over  four  dead  lions. 

This  alabaster  slab  is  one  of  a  large  series  illustrative  of  the 
royal  sport  in  Assyria — hunting  lions,  wild  horses,  gazelles,  and 
other  animals.  These  slabs  formed  the  decoration  of  portions 
of  the  walls  in  the  large  halls  of  the  palace  of  Ashurbanapal  at 
Kouyunjik  (Nineveh).  They  were  found  by  Layard  and  are  now 
one  of  the  great  attractions  of  the  British  Museum.  See  Layard, 
Monuments  of  Nineveh,  i.,  PI.  10-12  and  31-32;  Place,  Ninive 
et  I'Assyrie,  PL  50-57  and  62,  as  well  as  Mansell's  "British  Museum 
Photographs,"  Part  III.  (Assyrian  Sculptures),  Nos.  455-520  A. 
As  specimens  of  the  art  of  Assyria  they  are  of  deep  interest,  but  no 
less  as  illustrations  of  Hfe  and  manners,  supplemented  by  the 
equally  extensive  series  of  slabs  which  illustrate  the  campaigns 
waged  by  this  king.  (Layard,  op.  cit.,  L,  PL  13-30;  40-41 ;  57-83; 
iL,  PL  18-19;  25-31;  33-50;  Place,  op.  cit.,  PL  58-66  and  Mansell 
Nos.  438-50).  Similar  martial  designs  in  the  palace  of  Sargon  at 
Khorsabad  illustrating  his  campaigns,  for  which  see  Botta  et 
Flandin,  Mo?iument  de  Ninive,  VL  2,1-40;  49-73;  86-101;  1 17-147; 
(Hunting  Scenes,  PL  108-113). 

Ashurbanapal  with  his  attendants  behind  him  is  pouring  a 
libation  over  four  lions  killed  in  the  hunt.  An  altar  is  in  the 
centre,  and  a  pole  or  tree  such  as  is  often  seen  on  the  seal  cylinders 
when  sacrificial  scenes  are  portrayed.  The  musicians  to  the  left 
precede  the  attendants  carrying  a  dead  lion  on  their  backs. 
Fig.  2.     Kneeling  Winged  Figures  before  the  Sacred  Tree. 

Alabaster  slab  found  in  the  North-West  Palace  at  Nimroud. 
(Ashurnasirpal  883-859  B.C.).  See  Layard,  Monuments  of  Nineveh, 
{.,  PL  7  A,  and  Mansell,  "  British  Museimi  Photographs,"  Part  IIL, 
{Assyrian  Sculptures),  No.  326. 

The  sacred  tree  or  the  tree  of  life,  as  it  should  perhaps  be  called, 
is  frequently  portrayed  on  Assyrian  seal  cylinders  in  all  manner  of 
variations.  Though  foimd  also  on  Babylonian  specimens  its 
earliest  occurrence,  indeed,  being  on  a  boundary  stone  (c  1112  B.C.) 
as  a  decoration  of  the  garment  of  a  Babylonian  ruler,  Marduk- 
nadinakhe,  it  is  a  distinctive  characteristic  on  Assyrian  monu- 
ments. The  tree  intended  is  clearly  the  palm,  though  it  becomes 
conventionalised  to  such  a  degree  as  to  lose  almost  all  the  traits 
of  that  species.  Instead  of  kneeling  winged  figures  we  find  on 
other  slabs  of  the  N.-W.  Palace  of  Nimroud  as  well  as  at  Khorsabad 


PI.  26— Continued 

and  Kouyunjik  (see  Layard,  op.  ciL,  i.,  PI.  5-8;  34-39;  43-45; 
Botta  et  Flandin,  Monument  de  Ninive,  PI.  24-30;  74-75,  and 
Place,  Ninive  et  VAssyrie,  PI.  46-47):  (a)  standing  winged  figures 
with  human  faces,  (b)  eagle-headed  figures,  and  (c)  kings  with  the 
winged  figures,  further  conventionalised  as  ornaments  on  robes 
into  (d)  all  kinds  of  fantastic  shapes,  winged  bulls,  winged  horses, 
ostriches,  winged  sphinxes,  etc.  (See  Layard,  op.  cit.,  i.,  6-8 
and  43-50). 

The  winged  figures  preferably  carry  a  cone  in  one  hand  and  a 
basket  in  the  other,  or  a  branch  in  one  hand  and  a  basket  in  the 
other.  On  the  seal  cylinders  the  variations  are  even  more  numer- 
ous. Instead  of  winged  figures,  we  find  bulls  or  hons  with  birds 
and  scorpions  to  either  side  of  the  tree,  or  the  winged  figures  stand 
on  sphinxes,  or  human  headed  bulls  take  the  place  of  the  winged 
figures;  and  more  the  like.  It  is  evident  that  the  scene  is  in  all 
cases  an  adoration  of  the  tree.  In  a  purer  form  this  adoration 
appears  on  seal  cylinders  like  No.  687  in  Ward,  Cylinders  of 
Western  Asia  (p.  226),  where  we  find  two  priests  clad  in  fish  robes 
— as  attendants  of  Ea — with  a  worshipper  behind  one  of  the 
priests;  on  No.  688  with  only  one  priest  and  a  worshipper  to  either 
side;  or  No.  680,  the  goddess  Ishtar  on  one  side  of  the  tree,  and 
a  god — perhaps  Adad — on  the  other  side  with  a  worshipper  behind 
the  latter;  or  still  simpler  on  No.  689  where  there  is  only  one  priest 
and  a  worshipper  to  either  side  of  the  tree. 

The  winged  figures  in  such  various  forms  represent,  as  do  also 
the  sphinxes,  protecting  powers  of  a  lower  order  than  the  gods, 
but  who  like  Ishtar  and  Adad  in  the  specimen  just  referred  to  are 
the  guardians  of  the  sacred  tree,  with  which  the  same  ideas  were 
associated  by  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  as  with  the  tree  of 
life  in  the  famous  chapter  of  Genesis,  or  as  with  trees  of  life  found 
among  many  other  peoples.  The  cones  which  the  winged  figures 
beside  the  tree  hold  indicate  the  fruit  of  the  tree,  plucked  for  the 
benefit  of  the  worshippers  by  these  guardians  who  alone  may  do 
so.  A  trace  of  this  view  appears  in  the  injunction  to  Adam  and 
Eve  (Genesis  ii.)  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  all  the  trees  except  the  one 
which,  being  the  tree  of  knowledge,  was  not  for  mortal  man  to 
pluck — as  little  as  the  fruit  of  the  "Tree  of  Life."  For  further 
details  see  the  valuable  Chapter  XXXVIII.  on  "The  Tree  of  Life, " 
in  Ward,  Cylinders  of  Western  Asia. 


Fig.  I.     King  Ashurbanapal  in  Lion  Hunt  and  pouring 
Libations  over  Four  Lions  killed  in  the  Hunt 


•A-w*- 


\^^  y. 


Fig.  2.     Kneeling  Winged  Figures  before  Sacred  Tree 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       319 

were  enacted  to  purify  the  image  of  a  god  before  it 
could  be  put  to  use,  or  after  it  had  become  unclean.^ 
This  purification  of  the  dwelHng  reminds  one  of 
the  regulations  in  the  Priestly  Code  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment for  the  ritualist  cleansing  of  the  house  that  had 
shown  symptoms  of  infection.^  Whether  or  not  we 
may  assume  that,  at  the  comparatively  late  date  to 
which  the  Priestly  Code  belongs, — about  the  middle  of 
the  fifth  century  B.C., — medical  science  had  advanced 
to  a  knowledge  that  disease  could  lurk  in  the  walls 
and  floors  of  houses,  and  that  the  regulations  of  the 
Priestly  Code,  therefore,  reflect  the  influence  of  this 
advance,  the  basis  of  the  Pentateuchal  purification 
ritual  is  certainly  of  a  much  more  primitive  character, 
and  identical  with  that  which  we  find  in  the  incanta- 
tion ritual  of  Babylonia.  The  main  emphasis  in  both 
is  on  purification  from  ritualist  uncleanliness,  and 
this  point  of  view  is  a  direct  issue  from  the  primitive 
ideas  associated  with  tahoo. 


VIII 


A  further  development  of  the  tahoo,  but  in  a  much 
higher  direction,  is  represented  by  the  public  lamenta- 
tion ritual,  which  from  early  days  appears  to  have 
formed  a  part  of  the  official  cult  on  occasions  of  public 

*  See  Morgenstern,  Doctrine  of  Sin,  pp.  122  seq. 
'  Leviticus  xiv.,  33-53. 


320  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

distress,  when  the  gods  had  manifested  their  dis- 
pleasure by  sending  a  pestilence,  by  disaster  in  war, 
by  atmospheric  disturbances,  dealing  death  and  de- 
struction, or  by  terrifying  phenomena  in  the  heavens. 
We  have  numerous  examples  of  such  lamentations 
whereof  the  antiquity  is  sufficiently  attested  by  the 
fact  that  they  are  written  in  Siimerian,^  though  for  a 
better  understanding  translations  into  Babylonian, 
either  in  whole  or  in  part,  were  added  in  the  copies 
made  at  a  later  date.  The  basis  of  these  texts  is 
likewise  the  notion  of  uncleanliness.  The  entire 
land  was  regarded  as  having  become  taboo  through 
contamination  of  some  kind,  or  through  some  offence 
of  an  especially  serious  character.  The  gods  are  de- 
picted as  having  deserted  the  city  and  shown  their 
anger  by  all  manner  of  calamities  that  have  been 
visited  upon  the  country  and  its  inhabitants.  Atone- 
ment can  be  secured  only  by  an  appeal  to  the  gods, 
and  a  f  eatiu-e  of  this  atonement  ritual — as  we  may  also 
call  this  service — is  abstention  from  food  and  drink. 
We  may  well  suppose  that  on  such  occasions  the  peo- 
ple repaired  to  the  temples  and  participated  in  the  ser- 
vice, though  no  doubt  the  chief  part  was  taken  by  the 
priests  and  the  king.  It  was  probably  for  these  oc- 
casions that  purification  ceremonies  (which  appear 
to  have  been  particularly  elaborate)  were  prescribed 

'  See  especially  the  texts,  Cuneiform  Texts, xv.,  Plate  10-23,  and 
cf.  above,  p.  279,  and  below  p.  327,  note  I. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       321 

for  the  priests,  though  it  should  be  added  that  for 
all  other  occasions,  also,  the  priests  had  to  take  pre- 
cautions so  as  to  be  in  a  state  of  ritualist  cleanli- 
ness before  undertaking  any  service  in  the  temples.^ 
Atonement  for  the  priests  and  the  king,  for  the  former 
as  the  mediators  between  the  gods  and  their  worship- 
pers, for  the  latter  as  standing  nearer  to  the  gods  than 
the  masses  and  in  a  measure,  as  we  have  seen,  a 
god's  representative  on  earth,  was  an  essential  pre- 
liminary to  obtaining  forgiveness  for  the  people  as  a 
whole.  In  the  public  lamentation-songs  it  is  the 
general  condition  of  distress  that  is  emphasised,  and 
the  impression  is  gained  that  the  priests  send  forth 
their  appeals  to  the  gods  for  forgiveness  on  behalf  of 
the  people  in  general. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  indicate  the  pre- 
eminent position  occupied  by  the  city  of  Nippur  in  the 
religious  life  of  Babylonia.^  It  is  therefore  inter- 
esting to  note  that  the  atonement  and  lamentation 
ritual  worked  out  by  the  priests  of  this  centre  be- 
came the  pattern  which  was  followed  in  other  places 
— such  as  Isin,  Ur,  Larsa,  Sippar,  Babylon,  and 
Borsippa.  The  proof  is  furnished  by  examples  of 
lamentations,  bearing  internal  evidence  of  their  origi- 
nal connection  with  the  temple  E-Kur  at  Nippur, 
but  in  which  insertions  have  been  made  to  adapt 
them  to  other  centres. 

^  Morgenstern,  Doctrine  of  Sin,  pp.  146  seq.        »  Above,  p.  18. 


322  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

The  laments  themselves  are  rather  monotonous  in 
character,  though  the  rhythmic  chanting  no  doubt  les- 
sened the  monotony  and  heightened  their  solemnity. 
They  describe  the  devastation  that  has  been  wrought, 
repeating  in  the  form  of  a  litan}^  the  prayer  that  the 
gods  may  be  appeased.  Occasionally,  the  laments 
contain  picturesque  phrases.  As  an  instance,  one 
will  perhaps  be  sufficient,^  which  contains  the  in- 
sertions referred  to,  adapting  the  Nippur  composi- 
tion to  Ur  and  Larsa. 

O  honoured  one,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

O  exalted  and  honoured  one,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

O  lord  of  lands,  return,  look  on  thy  citj^ ! 

O  lord  of  the  faithfiil  word,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

O  Enlil,  father  of  Sumer,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

O  shepherd  of  the  dark-headed  people,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

O  thou  of  self-created  vision,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

Strong  one  in  directing  mankind,  return,  look  on  th}'  city! 

Giving  repose  to  multitudes,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

To  thy  city,  Nippur,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

To  the  brick  construction  of  E-Kur,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

To  Ki-Uru,'  the  large  abode,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

To  Dul-Azag,3  the  holy  place,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

To  the  interior  of  the  royal  house,"  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

To  the  great  gate  structure,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

^  Cuneiform  Texts,  Part  XV.,  Plate  12  and  13.  Parallel  text, 
RawHnson  IV.  (2d  ed.),  28*,  No.  4,  with  partial  Semitic  transla- 
tion. See  Langdon,5«w7 man  and  Babylonian  Psalms,  pp.  292- 
295;  Babyloniaca,  ii.,  pp.  275-81;  and  F.  A.  Vanderburgh,  Journal 
Amer.  Oriental  Society,  vol.  xxx.,  pp.  61-66. 

'  A  designation  of  a  part  of  E-Kur — perhaps  the  large  court. 

3  The  holy  chamber  of  the  temple. 

<  Note  the  juxtaposition  of  temple  and  palace. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       323 

To  E-Gan-Nun-Makh,^  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

To  the  temple  storehouse,  return,  look  on  thy  city! 

To  the  palace  storehouse,  return,  look  on  thy  city!' 

Unto  the  smitten  city — how  long  until  thou  returnest? 

To  the  smitten — when  wilt  thou  show  mercy? 

The  city  unto  which  grain  was  allotted. 

Where  the  thirsty  was  satiated  with  drink. 

Where  she  could  say  to  her  young  husband,  "my  husband," ^ 

Where  she  could  say  to  the  young  child,  "my  child," 

Where  the  maiden  could  say,  "my  brother." 

In  the  city  where  the  mother  could  say,  "my  child," 

Where  the  little  girl  could  say,  "my  father." 

There  the  little  ones  perish,  there  the  great  perish. 

In  the  streets  where  the  men  went  about,  hastening  hither  and 

thither. 
Now  the  dogs  defile  her  booty, 
Her  pillage  the  jackal  destroys. 
In  her  banqueting  hall  the  wind  holds  revel, 
Her  pillaged  streets  are  desolate.  -» 

In  reading  the  closing  lines  of  this  litany,  we  are  in- 
stinctively reminded  of  the  prevailing  note  in  the 
Biblical  book  of  Lamentations,  the  five  chapters  of 
which  represent  independent  compositions.  These 
lamentation-songs  still  constitute,  in  orthodox  Ju- 
daism, an  integral  part  of  the  ritual  for  the  day  com- 

^  Some  official  structure — perhaps  the  temple  granary. 
*  Here  the  insertion  adapting  the  lamentation  to  Ur  and 
Larsa  is  entered, 

"To  the  brick  construction  of  Ur  return,  look  on  thy  city, 
To  the  brick  construction  of  Larsa  return,  look  on  thy  city." 
While  in  another  version  the  adaptation  for  Sippar,  etc.,  is  made. 

^  I.e.,  Newly -wedded  couples  were  not  separated  through  the 
husband  being  obliged  to  go  to  war. 

4  Additional  line  in  Rawlinson,  IV.  (2d  ed.),  28*,  No.  4,'^ 


3^4  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

memorative  of  the  double  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
— the  first  by  Nebuchadnezzar  in  586  B.C.,  and  the 
second  in  70  a.d.,  by  the  Romans — and,  precisely 
as  in  ancient  Babylonia,  fasting  constitutes  one  of 
the  features  of  the  day.  Whether  or  not  the  second 
destruction  actually  occurred  on  the  day  commem- 
orated is  more  than  doubtful;  and  it  is  not  even  cer- 
tain that  the  first  destruction  occurred  on  the  9th  day 
of  the  5th  month.  It  is  more  likely  that  this  day  had 
acquired  a  significance  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  lamen- 
tation, long  before  Jerusalem  fell  a  prey  to  Babylonia, 
and  for  this  reason  was  chosen  by  the  Jews  in  com- 
memoration of  the  great  national  catastrophe.'  Be 
this  as  it  may,  the  resemblance  between  the  Hebrew 
and  the  Babylonian  "lamentation"  rituals  suggests  a 
direct  influence  on  the  Hebrews;  which  becomes  all 
the  more  plausible  if  it  be  recalled  that  another  fast 
day,  which  in  post-exilic  times  became  for  the  Jews 
the  most  solemn  day  of  the  year,  took  its  rise  during 
the  sojourn  of  the  Jews  in  Babylonia.^ 

^  Another  Jewish  fast  day,  the  17th  of  Tammuz,  though 
associated  by  Jewish  tradition  with  the  capture  of  Jerusalem 
by  the  Romans,  is  likewise  much  older  and,  in  all  probability, 
the  old  mourning  festival  for  the  youthful  Tammuz  (or  Adonis) , 
the  god  of  spring,  who  at  the  end  of  the  simimer  season  is  slain 
and  carried  to  the  nether  world.  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (English 
ed.),  p.  682,  and  the  references  there  given. 

^Celebrated  on  the  loth  day  of  the  festival  month  Tishri, 
but  not  mentioned  in  the  pre-exilic  codes  of  the  Pentateuch. 
The  combination  with  the  Atonement  day  of  a  primitive  ritual 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       325 

Destructions  of  cities  are  often  mentioned  in  the 
dates  attached  to  business  documents  of  ancient 
Babylonia.  We  have  also  a  series  of  texts  ^  in  which 
the  distress  incident  to  national  catastrophes  brought 
about  by  the  incursion  of  enemies  is  set  forth  in 
diction  which  recalls  the  style  of  the  lamentation- 
psalms.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  the  astro- 
logical omens  (which  formed  the  subject  of  the 
previous  lecture)  references  to  invasions  by  foreign 
foes  are  very  frequent,  and  phrases  are  intro- 
duced, clearly  taken  from  these  commemorative 
compositions.  All  this  points  to  the  deep  impres- 
sion made  upon  the  country  by  the  disasters  of 
the  past,  and  suggests  the  question  whether,  in 
commemoration  of  these  events,  a  certain  day  of 
fasting  and  lamentation  may  not  have  been  yearly 
set  aside,  whereon  the  ancient  compositions  of  the 
** Nippur"  ritual  were  recited  or  sung  in  the  temples, 
with  an  enumeration  of  the  various  occasions  in  the 
past  when  the  gods  had  manifested  their  displeasure 
and  wrath. 

With  such  a  supposition,  one  could  reasonably  ac- 
count for  the  additions  in  the  old  ritual,  referring  to 

for  exorcising  sin  marked  by  the  Azazel  ceremony  (Leviticus, 
chap,  xvi.),  suggests  that  it  represents  in  part  also  the  revival  of 
an  old  nomadic  festival  that  survives  in  some  of  the  ceremonies 
incidental  to  the  loth  day  of  the  month  of  pilgrimage  among  the 
Arabs.  See  Wellhausen,  Reste  Arabischen  Heidentums,  p.  77. 
^  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc..  Part  XIII.,  Plate  44-50. 


326  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

catastrophes  in  Ur,  Larsa,  Sippar,  Babylon,  and  so 
forth,  instead  of  the  mere  substitution  of  these  names 
for  that  of  Nippur  which  would  have  sufficed  if  the 
purpose  had  been  merely  to  recall  some  particular 
event.  Lacking  direct  evidence  of  a  day  set  apart 
as  a  general  fast-day  and  day  of  penitence,  humilia- 
tion, and  prayer  for  favour  and  grace  during  the 
coming  year,  a  certain  measure  of  caution  must  be 
exercised;  but  we  are  fully  justified  in  going  so  far 
at  least  as  to  assume  that  the  lamentation  ritual 
was  performed  in  the  great  centres  when  there 
was  an  actual  or  impending  catastrophe,  and  that 
on  such  occasions  the  dire  events  of  the  past  were 
recalled  in  laments  which,  by  virtue  of  the  sanc- 
tity that  everything  connected  with  the  cult  at 
Nippur  had  acquired,  were  based  on  the  "Nippur" 
ritual. 

The  fear  of  divine  anger  runs,  as  an  undercurrent, 
throughout  the  entire  religious  literature  of  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria.  Rulers  and  people  are  always 
haunted  by  the  fear  lest  Enlil,  Sin,  Shamash,  Ea, 
Marduk,  Nebo,  Nergal,  Ishtar,  or  some  other  deity 
manifest  displeasure.  This  minor  key  is  struck  even 
in  hymns  which  celebrate  the  kindness  and  mercy  of 
the  higher  powers ;  there  was  a  constant  fear  lest  their 
mood  might  suddenly  change.  Death  and  sickness 
stood  like  spectres  in  view  of  all  men,  ready  at  any 
moment  to  seize  their  victims.     Storms  and  inunda- 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       327 

tions,  however  needfiil  for  the  land,  brought  death  and 
woe  for  man  and  beast.  Enemies  were  constantly 
pressing  in  on  one  side  or  the  other;  and  thus  the 
occasions  were  frequent  enough  when  the  people  were 
forced  to  cringe  in  contrition  before  the  gods  in  the 
hope  that  they  might  soon  smile  with  favour,  and  send 
joy  into  the  heart  of  man,  or  else  that  a  threatened 
blow  might  never  fall. 

As  a  complement  to  the  public  lamentation  ritual, 
we  have  numerous  compositions  in  which  woe  is 
poured  forth  before  a  god  or  goddess,  and  emphasis 
is  laid  upon  the  consciousness  of  guilt.  ^  The  soul  is 
bowed  down  with  the  consciousness  of  some  wrong 
committed,  and  even  though  the  particular  sin  for 

^  The  first  systematic  study  of  this  class  of  compositions  was 
made  by  H.  Zimmern,  Babylonische  Busspsalmen  (Leipzig, 
1885).  Translations  of  the  most  important  of  them  will  be 
found  in  Jastrow,  Religion,  English  ed.,  pp.  312-327,  and  of 
practically  all  known  in  the  German  edition,  ii.,  pp.  62-134. 
While  the  age  of  these  "personal"  laments  and  confessions  of 
sin  cannot  be  determined,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
they  go  back  to  an  ancient  period — though  they  are  perhaps  not 
so  old  as  the  public  lamentation  ritual.  Many  of  them  have 
come  down  to  us  in  a  double  revision,  in  "Simierian"  with  a 
"Babylonian"  rendering,  but  it  would  appear  that  the  "Su- 
merian"  represents,  in  most  if  not  in  all  cases,  a  retranslation 
from  the  Babylonian.  The  fact  that  such  a  retranslation  was 
made  points  to  the  existence  of  penitential  psalms  of  a  personal 
character  in  Sumerian.  The  purpose  of  the  retranslation  was  to 
provide  a  text  in  the  ancient  "Sumerian"  that  had  acquired  the 
position  of  a  sacred  tongue,  and  was  considered  the  language 
in  which  the  psalms  should  be  recited,  or  at  all  events,  that  in 
which  they  should  be  couched. 


328  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

which  misfortune — sickness  or  some  misadventure 
or  trouble — has  been  sent  is  unknown  to  the 
suppliant  himself,  he  yet  feels  that  he  must  have 
committed  some  wrong  to  arouse  such  anger  in  the 
god  who  has  struck  him  down.  This  is  the  signif- 
icant featiu*e  in  these  "penitential  psalms,"  as  they 
have  been  called,  and  one  that  raises  them  far  above 
the  incantation  ritual,  even  though  they  assume  the 
belief  also  in  the  power  of  demons  and  sorcerers  to 
bring  to  pass  the  ills  whereto  human  flesh  is  heir.  To 
be  sure,  most,  if  not  all,  of  these  penitential  psalms 
assume  that  the  penitent  is  the  king,  just  as  most 
of  the  other  classes  of  hymns  are  royal  hymns  ^  but 
this  would  appear  to  be  due  mainly  to  the  official 
character  of  the  archives  from  which  the  scribes  of 
Ashurbanapal  obtained  their  material.  In  composi- 
tions of  Assyrian  origin,  or  modified  by  Assyrian 
priests,  the  official  character  is  even  more  pro- 
nounced, since  these  priests,  acting  directly  at  the 
command  of  their  royal  master,  had  him  more 
particularly  in  mind.  We  are  safe  in  assuming  that 
these  royal  laments  and  confessions  formed  the 
model  for  those  used  by  the  priests  when  the  lay 
suppHant  came  before  them,  though  exactly  to  what 
extent  they  were  used  in  the  case  of  individuals, 
as  supplementary  to  the  incantation  rites,  it  is 
impossible  to  say. 

*  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,  p.  io6. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       329 

Confession  and  lament  are  the  burden  of  these 
psalms:* 

Many  are  my  sins  that  I  have  committed, 

May  I  escape  this  misfortime,  may  I  be  relieved  from  distress! 

and  again: 

My  eye  is  filled  with  tears, 

On  my  couch  I  lie  at  night,  full  of  sighs, 

Tears  and  sighing  have  bowed  me  down. » 

The  indications  are  distinct  in  these  composi- 
tions that  they  formed  part  of  a  ritual,  in  which  the 
officiating  priest  and  the  penitent  each  had  his  part. 
The  priest,  as  mediator,  enforces  the  appeal  of  the 
penitent : 

He  weeps,  overpowered  he  cannot  restrain  himself. 
Thou  hearest  earnest  lament,  turn  thy  countenance  to  him! 
Thou  acceptest  petition,  look  faithfully  on  him! 
Thou  receivest  prayer,  turn  thy  countenance  to  him! 
Lord  of  prayer  and  petition,  let  the  prayer  reach  thee! 
Lord  of  petition  and  prayer,  let  the  prayer  reach  thee! 

The  appeal  is  here  made  to  Enlil,  Marduk,  and 
Nebo,  and  closes  with  the  refrain  which  is  frequent 
in  the  penitential  psalms : 

^  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.)  ii.,  pp.  85  seq.  See  also 
Reisner,  Sumerisch-Bahylonische  Hymnen,  No.  30. 

'In  another  composition  (Jastrow,  Religion,  ii.,  p.  76)  we 
read: 

"  Food  I  have  not  eaten — weeping  was  my  nourishment 
Water  I  have  not  drunk — tears  were  my  drink." 


330  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

May  thy  heart  be  at  rest,  thy  liver  ^  be  appeased!      '    ] 
May  thy  heart  like  the  heart  of  the  young  mother, — 
Like  that  of  the  mother  who  has  borne,  and  of  the  father  who 
has  begotten, — return  to  its  place! 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  fact  that  the  sense 
of  guilt  in  these  h3rmns  is  so  strong  as  to  prompt  the 
penitent  to  a  confession,  even  when  he  does  not  know 
for  what  transgression — ritualistic  or  moral — he  has 
been  punished,  nor  what  god  or  goddess  he  has  of- 
fended.    The  penitent  says  in  one  of  these  psalms^: 

O  lord  my  transgressions  are  many,  great  are  my  sins. 
My  god,  my  transgressions  are  many,  great  are  my  sins. 
O  god,  whoever  it  be,  3  my  transgressions  are  many,  great  are  my 
sins. 

0  goddess,  whoever  it  be,  my  transgressions  are  many,  great 

are  my  sins. 
The  transgressions  I  have  committed,  I  know  not. 
The  sin  I  have  done,  I  know  not. 
The  unclean  that  I  have  eaten,  I  know  not. 
The  impure  on  which  I  have  trodden,  I  know  not. 

The  lord  in  the  anger  of  his  heart  has  looked  at  me, 
The  god  in  the  rage  of  his  heart  has  encompassed  me. 
A  god,  whoever  it  be,  has  distressed  me, 
A  goddess,  whoever  it  be,  has  brought  woe  upon  me. 

1  sought  for  help,  but  no  one  took  my  hand, 
I  wept,  but  no  one  hearkened  to  me, 

I  broke  forth  in  laments,  but  no  one  listened  to  me. 
Full  of  pain,  I  am  overpowered,  and  dare  not  look  up. 
To  my  merciful  god  I  turn,  proclaiming  my  sorrow. 

^  On  this  use  of  heart  and  liver  for  the  mind  and  emotions 
see  above,  p.  151. 

2  Jastrow,  Religion  (English  ed.,  pp.  321  seq.,  German  ed.,  ii., 
pp.  102  seq.). 

•J  Literally  "known  or  unknown." 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       331 

To  the  goddess  [whoever  it  be,  I  turn  proclaiming  my  sorrow]. 

O  lord,  [turn  thy  countenance  to  me,  accept  my  appeal]. 

O  goddess,  [look  mercifully  on  me,  accept  my  appeal]. 

O  god  [whoever  it  be,  turn  thy  coimtenance  to  me,  accept  my 

appeal]. 
O  goddess  whoever  it  be,  [look  mercifully  on  me,  accept  my 

appeal]. 
How  long  yet,  O  my  god,  [before  thy  heart  shall  be  pacified]  ? 
How  long  yet,  O  my  goddess,  [before  thy  liver  shall  be  appeased]? 
O  god,  whoever  it  be,  may  thy  angered  heart  return  to  its  place! 
O  goddess,  whoever  it  be,  may  thy  angered  heart  return  to  its 

place! 

The  higher  intellectual  plane  reached  by  these  com- 
positions is  also  illustrated  by  the  reflections  attached 
to  them  on  the  weakness  of  human  nature  and  the 
limitations  of  the  human  mind,  unable  to  fathom  the 
ways  of  the  gods : 

Men  are  obtuse, — and  no  one  has  knowledge. 

Among  all  who  are, — who  knows  anything? 

Whether  they  do  evil  or  good, — no  one  has  knowledge. 

O  lord,  do  not  cast  thy  servant  off! 

In  the  deep  watery  morass  he  Hes — take  hold  of  his  hand! 

The  sin  that  I  have  committed,  change  to  grace! 

The  transgressions  that  I  have  committed, — let  the  wind  carry 

off! 
Tear  asunder  my  many  iniquities  like  a  garment! 

Even  more  interesting  are  the  reflections  put  into 
the  mouth  of  an  ancient — probably  legendary — 
king  of  Nippur,  Tabi-utul-Enlil,  in  a  composition^ 

^  Rawlinson  IV.  (2d.  ed.),  60.*  A  complete  translation  and 
study  of  the  text  will  be  found  in  the  writer's  article,  "A  Baby- 
lonian Parallel  to  Job"  {Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  vol.  xxv., 
pp.  135-191).    See  also  Jastrow,  Religion  (German  ed.),  ii.,p.  121- 


332  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

which  combines  with  an  elaborate  and  touching 
lament  the  story  of  an  aged  royal  sufferer,  who  like 
Job  was  known  for  his  piety,  and  yet  was  severely 
punished  and  sorely  tried  by  painful  disease.  As  in 
the  book  of  Job,  the  tone  of  the  composition  is  pes- 
simistic and  skeptical — at  least  to  the  extent  of 
questioning  whether  any  one  can  understand  the  hid- 
den ways  of  the  gods : 

I  attained  (mature)  life,  to  the  limit  of  life  I  advanced.^ 
Whithersoever  I  turned — evil  upon  evil! 

This  penitential  psalm  ends  with  the  answer  to 
the  king's  appeal;  its  most  striking  passage  is  the 
following — one  of  the  finest  in  the  whole  realm  of 
Babylonian  literattire,  and  marked  by  a  remarkably 
modem  undertone.  The  king  declares  that  he  did 
everything  to  please  the  gods;  he  prayed  to  them; 
he  observed  the  new-moon,  and  the  festivals,  and 
brought  the  gods  offerings : 

Prayer  was  my  rule,  sacrificing  my  law, 
The  day  of  worship  of  my  god,  my  joy, 
The  day  of  devotion  to  my  gods,  my  profit  and  gain. 

He  instructed  his  people  in  the  ways  of  the  gods 

133,  and  Jastrow,  "A  Babylonian  Job,"  in  Contemporary  Review, 
December,  1906;  also  Martin,  "Le  Juste  Souffrant  Babylonien" 
{Journal  Asiatique,  10  Series,  vol.  xvi.,  pp.  75-143),  who  em- 
bodies an  additional  fragment  published  by  R.  C.  Thompson; 
and  Landersdorfer,  "  Eine  Babylonische  Quelle  fur  das  Bucb 
Job?"  {Biblische  Studien,  xvi.,  2). 
*  /.  €.,  "I  have  grown  old." 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       333 

and  did  all  in  the  hope  of  pleasing  the  higher  powers 
— but  apparently  in  vain : 

What,  however,  seems  good  to  one,  to  a  god  may  be  displeasing. 

What  is  spurned  by  oneself  may  find  favour  with  a  god. 

Who  is  there  that  can  grasp  the  will  of  the  gods  in  heaven? 

The  plan  of  a  god  is  full  of  mystery, — who  can  tmderstand  it? 

How  can  mortals  learn  the  ways  of  a  god? 

He  who  is  still  alive  at  evening  is  dead  the  next  morning. 

In  an  instant  he  is  cast  into  grief,  of  a  sudden  he  is  crushed. 

This  moment  he  sings  and  plays, 

In  a  twinkling  he  wails  like  a  mourner. 

Like  opening  and  closing,^  (mankind's)  spirit  changes. 

If  they  hunger,  they  are  like  corpses. 

Have  they  been  satiated,  they  consider  themselves  a  rival  to 

their  god. 
If  things  go  well,  they  prate  of  mounting  to  heaven. 
If  they  are  in  distress,  they  speak  of  descending  into  Irkallu. " 


IX 


As  we  have  seen,^  neither  the  cause  or  the  nature  of 
an  eclipse  was  understood  until  a  very  late  period, 
and,  accordingly,  the  term  "darkening"  was  applied 
indiscriminately  to  any  phenomenon  that  temporarily 
obscured  the  moon.  At  the  end  of  each  month, 
therefore,  the  king  proceeded  to  the  sanctuary  to 
take  part  in  a  ritual  that  must  have  had  the  same 
sombre  character  as  the  "lamentation"  cult.  In  a 
collection  of  prayers,  technically  known  as  "Prayers 

*  A  commentary  on  the  text  puts  it  "like  day  and  night." 
2  One  of  the  names  of  the  lower  world  where  the  dead  congre- 
gate.    See  below,  p.  354.  3  See  above,  p.  215. 


334  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

for  the  Lifting  Up  of  the  Hand,"^  i.e.,  prayers  of 
imploration,  we  have  an  example  of  a  prayer  re- 
cited on  the  disappearance  of  the  moon  at  the  end  of 
the  month,  to  which  an  allusion  to  an  eclipse  is  added. ^ 
The  addition  illustrates  the  association  of  ideas  be- 
tween the  disappearance  of  the  moon  and  a  genuine 
eclipse.  One  suggested  the  other,  and  we  gain  the 
impression  that  the  belief  prevailed  that  unless  one 
succeeded  in  pacifying  the  gods  at  the  end  of  the 
month,  an  eclipse  would  soon  follow.  It  was  a  be- 
lief hard  to  disprove;  if  no  eclipse  took  place,  the  con- 
clusion followed  that  the  gods  had  been  pacified.  The 
prayer  reads  thus : 

O  Sin,  O  Nannar,  mighty  one  .  .  . 

O  Sin,  unparalleled,  illuminator  of  the  darkness! 

Granting  light  to  the  people  of  all  lands, 

Guiding  aright  the  black-headed  people. 

Bright  is  thy  light,  in  the  heavens  thou  art  exalted! 

BrilHant  is  thy  torch,  like  fire  burning, 

Thy  brightness  fills  the  wide  earth. 

The  joy  [?]  of  mankind  is  increased  at  thy  appearance. 

O  lofty  one  of  the  heavens,  whose  course  no  one  can  fathom! 

Supreme  is  thy  light  like  Shamash,  thy  first-bom. 

Before  thee  the  great  gods  prostrate  themselves, 

The  oracle  of  all  lands  is  entrusted  to  thee. 

The  great  gods  beseech  thee  to  give  counsel! 

Assembled,  they  stand  in  submission  to  thee! 

*  See  on  this  term,  King,  Babylonian  Magic  and  Sorcery,  p. 
xi.  seq. 

='King,  Babylonian  Magic  and  Sorcery,  No.  i.  The  prayer 
occurs  as  part  of  a  text  which  contains  also  a  prayer  to  Ishtar, 
and  one  to  Tashmit. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       335 

O  Sin,  glorious  one  of  E-Kur,  they  beseech  thee  that  thou  mayest 
render  a  decision ! 

The  day  of  disappearance  is  the  day  of  the  proclaiming  the  de- 
cision of  the  great  gods!^ 

The  thirtieth  day  is  thy  holy  day,  a  day  of  appeal  to  thy 
divinity. 

In  the  evil  hour  of  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  in  such  and  such 
a  month  and  on  such  and  such  a  day. ' 

Against  the  evil  omens  and  the  evil  imfavourable  signs  which 
threaten  my  palace  and  my  land. 

The  complement  to  the  day  of  disappearance  of 
the  moon,  elsewhere  called  "a  day  of  distress,"  is  the 
new-moon  day,  when,  amidst  exclamations  of  joy, 
the  return  of  the  moon  is  hailed  as  its  release  from 
captivity.  A  prayer  for  this  occasion — to  be  recited 
at  night — is  attached  to  the  above  text  and  reads  as 
follows: 

0  god  of  the  new-moon,  unrivalled  in  might,  whose  counsel  no 

one  can  grasp, 

1  have  poured  for  thee  a  pure  libation  of  the  night,  I  have  offered 

to  thee  a  pure  drink. 
I  bow  down  to  thee,  I  stand  before  thee,  I  seek  thee! 
Direct  thoughts  of  favour  and  justice  towards  me! 
That  my  god  and  my  goddess  who  since  many  days  have  been 

angry  towards  me. 
May  be  reconciled  in  right  and  justice,  that  my  path  may  be 

fortunate,  my  road  straight! 
And  that  he  may  send  Zakar,  3  the  god  of  dreams,  in  the  middle 

of  the  night  to  release  my  sins! 

^  I.e. ,  the  decision  whether  he  will  show  mercy  or  be  angry. 
2  Here  the  name  of  the  month  and  day  is  to  be  inserted. 
3 Zakar  is  called  the  "envoy"  of  the  moon-god. 


336  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

May  I  hear  that  thou  hast  taken  away  my  iniquity. 
That  for  all  times  I  may  celebrate  thy  worship! 

We  have  an  interesting  proof  that  this  new- 
moon  prayer  was  actually  used  on  the  occasion 
of  the  appearance  of  the  new-moon.  A  tablet  has 
been  found  at  Sippar,^  containing  this  very  prayer, 
put  into  the  mouth  of  Shamash-shumukin  (the 
brother  of  King  Ashurbanapal)  who,  by  appointment 
of  his  brother,  ruled  over  Babylonia  for  twenty  years 
(648-628  B.C.)-  Attached  to  this  prayer  are  direc- 
tions for  the  accompanying  ritual,  which  includes  an 
offering  of  grain,  dates,  and  meal,  of  binu  wood,  butter, 
cream,  and  wine. 

To  this  day  the  Arabs  greet  the  new-moon  with 
shouts  of  joy,^  and  the  Jewish  ritual  prescribes  a 
special  service  for  the  occasion  which  includes  the 
recital  of  psalms  of  "joy."^  This  joy  on  the  reap- 
pearance of  the  moon  is  well  expressed  in  various 
"  Sumerian  "  hymns,  originating  with  the  moon-cult  at 
Ur.  They  have  all  the  marks  of  having  been  chanted 
by  the  priests  when  the  first  crescent  was  seen  in  the 
sky.     The  crescent  is  compared  to  a  bark,  in  which 


'  Scheil,  Une  Saison  des  Fouilles  d,  Sippar  (Cairo,  1894),  p.  104, 
No.  18.     See  also  Combe,  Histoire  du  Culte  de  Sin,  pp.  124-26. 

^Doughty,  Arabia  Deserta,  vol.  i.,  p.  366;  ii.,  p.  305.  The 
technical  term  for  this  rejoicing  is  hildl — on  which  see  above, 
p.  214. 

i  The  so-called  Hallel  psalms  (Ps.  1 1 3-1 18)  or  portions  of  them. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       337 

the  moon-god  sails  through  the  heavens.     In  one  of 
these  chants  we  read : ' 

Self-created,'  glorious  one,  in  the  resplendent  bark  of  heaven! 

Father  Nannar,  lord  of  Ur! 

Father  Nannar,  lord  of  E-Kishirgal!^ 

Father  Nannar,  lord  of  the  new-moon! 

Lord  of  Ur,  first-born  son  of  Enlil! 

As  thou  sailest  along,  as  thou  sailest  along! 

Before  thy  father,  before  Enlil  in  thy  sovereign  glory! 

Father  Nannar,  in  thy  passing  on  high,  in  thy  sovereign  glory! 

O  bark,  sailing  on  high  along  the  heaven  in  thy  sovereign  glory ! 

Father  Nannar,  as  thou  sailest  along  the  resplendent  road  (?) 

Father  Nannar,  when,  like  a  bark  on  the  floods,  thou  sailest 

along ! 
Thou,  when  thou  sailest  along,  thou,  when  thou  sailest  along! 
Thou  when  thou  risest,  thou  when  thou  sailest  along! 
In  thy  rising  at  the  completion  of  the  course,  as  thou  sailest 

along! 
Father  Nannar,  when  like  a  cow  thou  takest  care  of  the  calves! 4 
Thy  father  looks  on  thee  with  a  joyous  eye — as  thou  takest  care! 
Come!  glory  to  the  king  of  splendour,  glory  to  the  king  who 

comes  forth! 
Enlil  has  entrusted  a  sceptre  to  thy  hand  for  all  times. 
When  over  Ur  in  the  resplendent  bark  thou  mountest.  s 

In  this  somewhat  monotonous  manner,  and  evi- 
dently arranged  for  responsive  chanting,  the  hymn 
continues.  The  keynote  is  that  of  rejoicing  at  the 
release  of  the  new-moon,  once  more  sailing  along  the 

^  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc..  Part  xv..  Plates  i6, 17.  SeeLangdon, op. 
cit.y  pp.  296-299,  and  Combe,  Histoire  du  Culte  de  Sin,  pp.  107  seq. 

2  In  other  hymns  the  moon  is  also  addressed  as  "seH-created." 

3  Temple  of  Sin  (or  Nannar)  at  Ur. 
*  I.e.,  the  stars. 

s  The  rest  of  the  hymn  is  imperfectly  preserved. 


33^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

heavens,  which  it  is  hoped  augurs  well  also  for  relief 
from  anxiety  on  earth. 

Besides  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  month,  the 
middle  of  the  month  was  fraught  with  significance. 
Experience  must  have  taught  the  priests  and  the  peo- 
ple that  a  genuine  eclipse  of  the  moon  could  take 
place  only  at  this  period,  when  the  moon  appears  to  be 
taking  a  "rest"  for  a  few  days — remaining  apparently 
unchanged.  The  middle  of  the  month  was  therefore 
designated  as  shabbatum, "■  conveying  the  idea  of  "rest- 
ing." The  term  corresponds  to  the  Hebrew  Shabbath 
or  Shabbathon,''  which  among  the  Hebrews  was  applied 
originally  to  the  four  phases  of  the  moon,  and  then  to  a 
regular  interval  of  seven  days,  without  reference  to 
the  moon's  phases,  and  thus  became  the  technical 
term  for  the  weekly  "day  of  rest."  In  a  previous  lec- 
ture, we  dwelt  on  the  importance  attached  to  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  full-moon.  An  appearance  too  early 
or  somewhat  belated  augured  a  misfortune, — defeat 
in  war,  bad  crops,  insufficient  flooding  of  the  canals, 
or  death.  Rejoicing  therefore  followed  the  appear- 
ance of  the  full-moon  at  the  expected  time;  and 
joy  was  multiplied  when  the  danger  of  an  eclipse  was 
passed.  This  Babylonian  "Sabbath"  was,  therefore, 
appropriately  designated  as  "a  jav  of  pacification" 

'  See  Zimmern,  "Sabbath,"  in  Zeitschrift  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenldnd 
Gesellschaft,  vol.  Iviii.,  p.  200.  In  Lev.  xxiii.,  11  and  15,  there  is 
a  trace  of  this  usage  in  Hebrew. 

^  Both  forms  occur  in  Hebrew. 


PI.  27.     Winged  Figure  with  Palm  Branch  and  Spotted  Deer. 

See  Layard,  Monuments  of  Nineveh,  i.,  PL  35,  and  Mansell, 
"British  Museum  Photographs,"  Part  iii.,  {Assyrian  Sculptures), 
No.  358.  In  Layard  (and  IMansell,  No.  357)  a  second  winged 
figure  may  be  found  carrying  a  branch  of  the  palm  tree  and  an 
ibex,  while  PL  34  presents  as  a  third  variation  a  winged  figure  with 
basket  and  branch;  and  PL  5  winged  figure  with  cone  and  basket 
like  on  the  representation  of  the  tree  of  life  (see  comment  to  pre- 
ceding plate).  The  palm  branch  symbolises  the  tree  of  Hfe  which 
has  been  plucked  for  the  benefit  of  the  king  to  whom  the  branch 
and  therefore  the  blessings  of  life  are  thus  offered.  The  deer  as 
well  as  the  ibex  is  a  sacrificial  animal,  and  symbolises  the  gift  offered 
by  the  royal  worshippers  in  return,  and  received  on  behalf  of  the  god 
by  the  winged  figure  acting  as  mediator  or  priest.  Attached  to  the 
figure  (alabaster  slab)  is  the  so-called  standard  inscription  of 
Ashurnasirpal,  King  of  Assyria  (883-859  B.C.)  in  whose  palace 
(N.-W.  Palace  of  Nimroud)  at  Calah  it  was  found.  Now  in  the 
British  Museum. 


//^  ;- 


^      • 


/ 


^x^ 


"\  '  ^  '^ 


s^ 


-««5 


Winged  Figure  with  Palm  Branch  and  Spotted  Deer 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       339 

when  the  gods  appeared  to  be  at  peace  with  the  world, 
smiling  on  the  fields  and  gracious  toward  mankind. 
Among  the  collections  of  hymns  to  Sin  there  are 
several  that  bear  the  impress  of  having  been  composed 
for  the  celebration  of  the  full-moon :  ^ 

O  Sin,  resplendent  god,  light  of  the  skies,  son  of  Enlil,  shining 

one  of  "E-Kur! 
With  universal  sway  thou  rulest  all  lands!  thy  throne  is  placed 

in  the  lofty  heavens ! 
Clothed  with  a  superb  garment,  crowned  with  the  tiara  of  ruler- 
ship,  full  grown  in  glor>'! 
Sin  is  sovereign — his  light  is  the  guide  of  mankind,  a  glorious 

ruler. 
Of  unchangeable  command,  w^hose  mind  no  god  can  fathom. 
O  Sin,  at  thy  appearance  the  gods  assemble,  all  the  kings  prostrate 

themselves. 
Nannar,   Sin  .  .  .  thou   comest   forth  as   a   briUiant   dark-red 

stpnej 
...  as  lapis  lazuli.     At  the  brilliancy  of 
Sin  the  stars  rejoice,  the  night  is  filled  with  joy. 
Sin  dwells  in  the  midst  of  the  resplendent  heavens.  Sin,   the 

faithful  beloved  son. 
Exalted  ruler,  first-born  of  Enlil  .  .  . 
Light  of  heaven,  lord  of  the  lands  .  .  . 
His  word  is  merciful  in  Eridu  .  .  . 
Thou  hast  established  Ur  as  thy  dwelling[?]. 

The  sun,  as  well  as  the  moon,  was  celebrated  in 
hymns,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that,  in  the  many 
localities  of  sun-worship,  both  at  his  rising  and  at 
his  setting,  the  priests  daily  chanted  those  hymns, 

^  Perry,  Hymns  to  Sin,  No.  5. 

'  An  allusion  to  the  frequently  dark-red  colour  of  the  full- 


34^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

accompanied    by  offerings  and    by  a  more    or  less 
elaborate  ritual.  ^ 


Festival  da3^s  sacred  to  a  deity  were  numerous  and 
formed  another  important  feature  of  worship.  As 
was  to  be  expected  of  an  agricultural  people  like  the 
ancient  Babylonians,  these  festivals  were  connected 
originally  with  the  seasons  of  the  year.  The  most  im- 
portant was  the  spring  festival,  symbolised  by  the 
marriage  of  the  young  sun-god  of  the  spring  with  the 
goddess  of  vegetation.  At  Nippur  the  pair  was  Ninib 
and  his  consort  Gula;  at  Lagash,  Ningirsu  and  Bau. 
When  the  attributes  of  all  the  various  local  solar 
deities  were  transferred  to  Alarduk  of  Babylon,  the 
consorts  of  Ninib  and  Ningirsu  and  other  consorts 
were  replaced  by  Marduk's  consort  Sarpanit, — the 
Ishtar^  of  Babylon.  To  an  agricultural  people  the 
spring  represented  the  birth  of  the  year.  Thereupon 
this  spring  festival  naturally  became  the  new  year's 
celebration,  known  by  the  Sumerian  name,  Zag- 
Muk.  As  Babylon  grew  in  political  and  religious  im- 
portance, the  new  year's  festival  became  the  most 
solemn  occasion  of  the  year. 

We  have  seen^  that  the  cult  of  Nebo,  whereof  the 

"^  For  examples  of  such  hymns  see  Jastrow,  Religion,  English 
ed.,  pp.  300-304,  and  German  ed.,  i.,  pp.  426-436. 

2  See  above,  p.  125.  3  Above,  p.  95  seq. 


PI.  28.     Fig.  I.     Votive  Tablet  of  Ur-Enlil,  Patesi  of  Xippur  (c  3000  B.C.). 

Limestone  tablet  with  brief  votive  inscription  found  by  Haynes 
at  Xippur  and  now  in  the  Imperial  Ottoman  Museum  at  Constanti- 
nople. The  upper  scene  represents  a  naked  worshipper  who  is 
none  other  than  Ur-Enlil  himself,  offering  a  libation  to  Enlil,  the 
chief  god  of  Xippur.  In  accordance  with  the  principle  of  sym- 
metry, so  frequently  illustrated  on  the  seal  cyHnders,  the  scene 
is  given  in  double  form.  The  lower  section  shows  a  goat  and 
sheep  followed  by  two  men,  one  with  a  vessel  on  his  head  the  other 
with  a  stick  in  his  hand.  The  animals  may  represent  sacrifices  to 
be  offered  to  the  god.  Another  Hmestone  tablet  has  been  found 
at  Xippur,  likewise  showing  a  naked  worshipper — perhaps  the 
same  Ur-Enlil — before  Enlil  and  a  gazelle  in  the  lower  section. 
See  Hilprecht,  Babylonian  Expedition,  i.,  2  PI.  XVI.  and  Xo.  94, 
and  the  same  author's  Excavations  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  p. 
417.  The  naked  worshipper — a  custom  of  primitive  days  for 
which  there  are  parallels  in  other  religions — is  also  found  on  a 
limestone  bas-relief  from  Telloh  (de  Sarzec,  Decouvertes,  p.  209; 
Heuzey,  Catalogue,  pp.  11 7-1 18). 
Fig.  2.  Babylonian  Type  of  Gilgamesh,  the  Hero  of  the  Baby- 
lonian Epic 

Terra-cotta.  Found  at  Telloh.  Xow  in  the  Louvre.  The 
hero  who  is  naked  holds  a  vase  from  which  a  jet  of  water  streams 
to  either  side,  symbolising  the  association  of  the  solar  hero  with 
the  sun-god  (see  comment  to  PI.  6-7),  who  is  frequently  repre- 
sented with  streams.  See  de  Sarzec,  Decouvertes,  p.  251;  Heuzey, 
Catalogue,  p.  341.  So  also  frequently  on  seal  cylinders.  See 
Ward,  Seal  Cylinders  of  Western  Asia,  Chap.  XL 


^ 


Pi  mm. 


#WS: 


^:^: 


^  ■  "       •  * 


Fig.  I.     Offering  to  Ur-Enlil,  Chief  God  of  Nippur 


^ 


Fig.  2.  Babylonian  Type  of 
Gilgamesh,  the  Hero 
of  the  Babylonian 
Epic 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults      341 

centre  was  in  the  neighbouring  Borsippa,  was  closely 
associated  with  that  of  Marduk,  and  that  Nebo  him- 
self became,  in  the  systematised  pantheon,  the  son  of 
Marduk.  A  feature  of  this  annual  festival  was  the 
visit  paid  by  Nebo  to  his  father,  Marduk,  marked 
by  a  procession  of  the  images  of  the  great  gods,  borne 
along  the  via  sacra  leading  to  the  Marduk  temple  in 
Babylon.  ^  A  heightened  solemnity  was  imparted  to 
the  festival  by  an  assemblage  of  all  the  great  gods  in  a 
special  chapel,  known  as  the  "chamber  of  fates,"'' 
in  order  to  decree  for  the  coming  year  the  fate  of  the 
country  and  of  individuals.  Over  this  assembly  Mar- 
duk presided  with  his  son,  Nebo,  at  his  side,  acting 
as  recorder.  The  festival  lasted  for  eleven  days,  and 
on  the  concluding  day,  as  it  would  appear,  the  fates 
decreed  by  the  gods  were  definitely  sealed. 

A  special  interest  attaches  to  this  new  year's 
festival,  because  it  served  as  the  pattern  for  both  the 
New  Year  and  the  Day  of  Atonement  of  the  Jews. 
The  popular  Jewish  tradition  represents  God  as  sitting 
in  judgment  during  the  first  ten  days  of  the  year,  sur- 
rounded by  his  court  of  angels,  who  inscribe  in  the 
book  of  fate  the  names  of  all  persons  with  what  is  to  be 
their  destiny  for  the  coming  year.      To  this  day  the 

^  See  the  monograph  of  Koldewey,  Die  Pfiastersteine  von 
Aibur-schabu  in  Babylon  (Leipzig,  1901),  giving  an  account  of 
the  excavation  of  a  part  of  this  via  sacra,  the  walls  of  which  were 
lined  with  glazed  and  coloured  tiles,  portraying  lions  moving  in 
procession.     See  Plate  30,  Fig.  i.  '  Ubshu-kennu. 


PI.  29.     Votive  Offerings  (Copper)  from  Lagash. 

Found  at  Telloh  and  now  in  the  Louvre.  The  two  kneeling 
figures  represent  deities — probably  in  both  cases  Ningirsu — and 
bearing  dedicatory  inscriptions  of  Gudea,  the  Patesi  of  Lagash  (c. 
2350  B.C.)  The  two  bulls  contain  dedicatory  inscriptions  of  Gudea 
to  the  goddess  Inninna  for  her  temple  E-Anna  in  Girsu  (a  section 
of  Lagash) .  The  two  female  figures  with  baskets  on  their  heads, 
likewise  bear  dedicatory  inscriptions.  Similar  figures — male  and 
female — have  been  found  with  inscriptions  of  various  rulers. 
The  basket  on  the  head  is  the  symbol  of  participation  in  the 
erection  of  a  sacred  edifice,  as  in  the  case  of  Ur  Nina  (see  PI.  2). 
See  De  Sarzec,  Decouvertes,  PL  28,  pp.  245-247;  Heuzey,  Catalogue, 
pp.  300-318. 


Votive  Offerings  from  Lagash 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       343 

giveness,  were  recited  during  these  penitential  days  of 
the  new  year's  festival,  even  though  their  application 
was  general,  and  they  may  not  have  been  composed 
for  this  special  occasion. 

The  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  must  have  had 
harvest  festivals,  marked  like  those  of  other  people 
by  rejoicings  and  thanksgivings  to  the  gods,  but  as 
yet  we  have  not  unearthed  these  rites  and  ceremon- 
ies. We  are,  however,  fortunate  enough  to  know 
a  good  deal  about  a  festival  that  forms  a  comple- 
ment to  the  new  year's  celebration  and,  because 
of  its  antiquity  and  wide  bearings  on  the  general 
religious  ideas  of  the  Semites,  commands  a  special 
interest. 

The  sun-god  of  the  spring  was  pictured  as  a  youth- 
ful warrior  triumphing  over  the  storms  of  winter. 
The  goddess  of  vegetation — Ishtar,  under  various 
names — unites  herself  to  this  god,  and  the  two  in 
unison — sun  and  earth — bring  forth  new  life  in  the 
fields  and  meadows.  But  after  a  few  months  the  sum- 
mer season  begins  to  wane,  and  rains  and  storms  again 
set  in.  The  change  of  seasons  was  depicted  as  due  to 
the  death  of  the  youthful  god ;  according  to  one  tradi- 
tion he  was  deserted  by  the  goddess  who  had  won  his 
love ;  according  to  another,  he  was  slain  by  a  wild  boar. 
An  old  Sumerian  designation  of  this  god  was  Dumu-Zi, 
abbreviated  from  a  fuller  designation,  Dumu-Zi-x\b- 
zu,  and  interpreted  as   "the  legitimate  [or   "faith- 


344  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

ful"]  child  of  the  deep."'  The  allusion  is  apparently 
to  the  sun  rising  out  of  the  ocean,  which  was  supposed 
to  flow  about  and  underneath  the  world.  The  name 
passed  over  to  the  Semites  of  Babylonia,  and  thence 
spread  throughout  and  beyond  the  borders  of  Semi- 
tic settlements  under  the  form  Tammuz.  With  the 
name,  went  the  myth  of  the  youthful  god,  full  of 
vigoiir,  but  who  is  slain,  and  condemned  to  a  sojourn 
in  the  lower  world,  from  which  he  is  released  and  re- 
vivified in  the  following  spring.  The  antiquity  of  the 
cult  of  Tammuz  in  Babylonia  is  confirmed  by  re- 
ligious compositions  in  Sumerian,  bewailing  the  loss 
of  the  god  and  also  hailing  his  return.  This,  of  itself, 
would  not,  necessarily,  prove  the  Sumerian  origin  of 
the  myth,  which  indeed  is  of  so  widespread  a  char- 
acter as  to  justify  us  in  regarding  it  as  common  to 
Sumerians  and  Semites;  but  it  shows  that  the  weep- 
ing for  Tammuz,  which  Ezekiel  (viii.,  14)  portrays  as 
being  practised  even  in  his  days  by  the  women  at  the 
north  gate  of  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  is  one  of  the 
oldest  items  of  the  Sumero-Babylonian  cult.  In 
the  older  Babylonian  calendar  the  summer  solstice  fell 
in  the  sixth  month ;  in  the  later  calendar  in  the  fourth 
month,  which  became  known  as  the  month  of  the 
festival  of  Tammuz,  and  then  briefly  as  the  month  of 

^  See  Zimmern,  Der  Babylonische  Gott  Tamuz,  p.  6  (in  the 
Abhd.  Phil.  Hist.  Klasse  d.  Kbnigl.  Sachs.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.,  No. 
XX.),  where  all  the  other  designations  under  which  the  god 
appears  are  enumerated  and  discussed. 


30.     Fig.  I.     Lion  of  Babylon. 
Fig.  2.     Dragon  of  Babylon. 

Pieced  together  from  numerous  fragments  of  glazed  tiles  of  the 
Neo-Babylonian  period,  found  at  Babylon.  See  Mitteilungen  der 
Deutschen  Orient-Gesellschaft,  Nos,  2-3;  6  (pp.  13-17);  12-13; 
19,  etc. 

This  lion  is  one  of  a  large  number  of  such  figures  that  were 
placed  as  decorations  in  the  Via  Sacra  of  Babylon,  leading  to  E- 
Sagila  the  temple  of  Marduk,  and  along  which  on  the  Xew  Year's 
festival  (and  no  doubt  on  other  festive  occasions)  the  gods  were 
carried  in  procession.  The  lions — as  symbols  of  Mardiik — faced 
to  the  north,  and  lined  the  walls  of  both  sides  of  the  street  which, 
built  by  Nebuchadnezzar  II.  (604-561  B.C.),  rose  high  above  the 
houses  of  the  city.  The  name  given  to  the  street  Ai-ibur-shabu 
signified  "may  the  oppressor  not  wax  strong";  it  was  paved  with 
large  blocks  of  limestone  and  volcanic  breccia,  containing  in- 
scriptions commemorating  the  work  of  Nebuchadnezzar  in  honour 
of  Marduk.  See  Koldewey,  Die  Pfiastersteine  von  Aihurschahu 
in  Babylon  (Berhn,  1901). 

As  specimens  of  art,  these  glazed  tiles,  brilliantly  coloured — blue 
and  yellow  predominating — are  of  special  interest  in  enabling 
us  to  trace  the  splendid  achievements  of  the  Achaemenian  Kings 
at  Susa  (see  Perrot  and  Chipiez,  History  of  Art  in  Persia,  pp.  136- 
161)  direct  to  their  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  prototypes.  For 
similar  glazed  tiles  on  Assyrian  edifices  see  Layard,  Monuments 
of  Nineveh,  i.,  84-87;  Botta  et  Flandin,  Monument  de  Ninive,  ii., 
PI.  155-156  and  the  restorations  in  Place,  Ninive  et  r Assyria,  PL 
14-17;   27-31    (Khorsabad). 

The  dragon — a  composite  monster  with  a  horned  serpent's 
head,  the  scaled  body,  the  front  legs  of  a  lion  and  the  hind  legs 
of  an  eagle — belongs  to  the  same  category  of  ideas  that  produced 
the  human  headed  bulls  and  lions,  the  winged  human  figures,  and 
the  eagle-headed  winged  figures  resting,  probably,  upon  primitive 
notions  of  hybrid  beings,  as  reported  by  Berosus  (see  Zimmem 
Keilinschriften  und  das  Alte  Testament,  ii.,  p.  488  seg.),  that  were 
supposed  to  precede  the  more  regular  forms  of  animal  creation.  It 
was  natural,  therefore,  that  such  monsters  should  become  on  the 
one  hand  the  symbols  of  gods,  and  on  the  other  hand  be  chosen 
as  the  representations  of  the  inferior  order  of  gods — the  demons  or 


PL  30 — Continued 

spirits — here  serving  as   protectors  of   temples  and  palaces  and 

'  as  guardians  of  the  tree  of  life  (see  comment  to  Fl.  26,  Fig.  2). 

The  picture  of  Marduk  (PI.  15,  Fig.  2)  shows  the  dragon  as  the 
symbol  of  this  god,  though  probably  transferred  to  him  from  Enlil. 
(See  comment  to  PI.  15,  Fig.  i.) 

The  dragon  together  with  the  unicorn  (or  wild  ox)  and  orna- 
mented friezes  formed  the  exterior  decoration  of  the  walls  of  the 
magnificent  gate  of  Ishtar,  excavated  by  the  German  expedition 
at  Babylon,  and  that  formed  the  approach  to  the  sacred  area  of 
Marduk's  temple.  It  is  estimated  that  these  walls  had  no  less 
than  thirteen  rows  of  alternating  dragons  and  bulls  superimposed 
one  upon  the  other,  together  with  ornamented  friezes  which  were 
likewise  glazed  tiles.  Repeated  at  regular  interstices,  we  would 
thus  obtain  a  pattern  furnishing  many  hundreds  of  these  animal 
designs.  It  is  such  designs  that  the  prophet  Ezekiel  in  his  vision 
(Chap,  viii.,  10)  sees  "portrayed  on  the  wall"  of  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem. 


Fig.  I.     Lion  of  Babvlon 


Fig.  2.     Dragon  of  Babylon 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       345 

Tammuz.^  With  the  summer  solstice  the  year  begins 
to  wane,  and  it  was  appropriate,  therefore,  to  hold 
at  this  time  a  festival  commemorating  the  gradual 
waning  of  the  god's  vigour. 

While  we  meet  references  to  Tammuz  in  hymns 
and  other  compositions,  we  hear  little  or  nothing  of 
his  cult  in  later  days.  The  question  may  be  raised, 
therefore,  whether  or  not  it  was  officially  recognised 
in  the  temples  after  a  certain  date.  There  are,  indeed, 
good  reasons  for  believing  that  the  worship  of  Tam- 
muz continued  as  a  private,  rather  than  as  an  official, 
cult ;  but  from  this  point  of  view,  the  cult  becomes  even 
more  significant,  since  it  affords  an  insight  into  the 
popular  religion,  apart  from  rites  merely  official. 

In  contrast  to  the  lamentation  hymns,  which  formed 
part  of  the  atonement  ritual,^  the  hymns  to  Tam- 
muz are  remarkably  free  from  references  to  national 
disasters.  A  personal  note  runs  through  them,  in 
keeping  with  the  popular  character  of  a  festival,  based 
on  the  change  of  seasons,  and  which  is  fraught  with 
such  significance  to  an  agricultural  people.  They  are 
largely  composed  of  an  enumeration  of  the  names  of 
the  god,  accompanied  by  phrases  expressive  of  grief 
at  his  removal  to  the  lower  world — the  abode  of  the 
dead.     One  of  them  reads,  in  part:^ 

*  So  in  the  Jewish  calendar  up  to  the  present  day. 
»  See  above,  p.  321  seq. 

3  Cuneiform  Texts,  xv.,  Plates  20,  21.  See  Zimmern,  Sumerisch- 
Babylonische  Tamuzlieder,  No.  4  (Berichte  d.  Phil.  Hist.  Klasse 


34^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

[Oh  for  the  lord  sitting  in  sorrow],  oh  for  the  lord  sitting  in  sorrow! 

Damu  sits,  oh  for  the  lord  sitting  in  sorrow! 

Ama-Ushum-Gal  sits,  oh  for  the  lord  sitting  in  sorrow! 

Alas!  my  hero  Damu! 

Alas!  child,  legitimate  lord! 

Alas!  Kadi  of  the  shining  [?]  eyes! 

Alas!  Nagar,  lord  of  the  net! 

Alas!  prince,  lord  of  invocation! 

Alas!  my  heavenly  wailer! 

The  raging  storm  has  brought  him  low, — him  that  has  taken  his 

way  to  the  earth. 
Like  a  reed  he  is  broken  .  .  . 
A  hero,  he  has  forsaken  his  field. 
A  shepherd,  Tammuz  is  cast  in  sorrow. 
His  mother^  wails — she  begins  the  wailing  for  him. 
Wailing  and  sighing — she  begins  the  wailing  for  him. 
She  rises — bitterly  she  wails! 
She  sits — she  puts  her  hand  on  her  heart' 
She  breaks  out  in  wailing — bitter  is  her  wailing. 
She  breaks  out  in  lament — bitter  is  her  lament! 

In  another  lament,^  we  are  specifically  told: 

He  is  gone,  he  is  gone  to  the  bosom  of  the  earth, 
And  the  dead  are  numerous  in  the  land! 

While  Tammuz  is  hidden  in  the  earth,  verdure  dis- 

der  Konigl.  Sachs.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.,  vol.  lix.,  pp.  22  seq.) ;  Langdon, 
pp.  312-317;  Prince,  "A  Hymn  to  Tammuz"  in  Amer.  Journal 
of  Semitic  Languages,  vol.  xxvii.,  pp.  84-89.  The  beginning  is 
defective. 

^  Known  as  Sirdu.  The  sister  of  Tammuz,  Geshtin-Anna  or 
in  Babylonian  Belit-seri,  "lady  of  the  field,"  is  also  represented 
as  bewailing  the  fate  of  her  brother.  See  Zimmern,  Der  Bahy- 
lonische  Gott  Tamuz,  p.  14. 

»  An  expressive  gesture  of  deep  grief. 

3  Rawlinson  IV.  (2d  ed.),  30,  No.  2.  Zimmern,  Tamuzlieder, 
No.  I;  Langdon,  op.  ciL,  304  seq. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       347 

appears,  vegetation  ceases,  and  fertility  among  ani- 
mals pauses: 

How  long  will  the  springing  up  of  verdure  be  withheld? 
How  long  will  vegetation  be  withheld? 

In  other  compositions,  Ishtar  is  described  as  her- 
self proceeding  to  the  nether  world  to  seek  out  her 
lover  and  spouse,  Tammuz,  in  order  to  bring  the 
god  back  to  earth  again  amidst  general  rejoicing 
that  clearly  symbolises  the  return  of  vegetation. 
May  we  see  in  this  association  of  Ishtar  with  Tam- 
muz the  reason  why  in  the  later  periods  we  do  not 
find  references  to  the  popular  festival  as  part  of  the 
official  cult?  Ishtar  and  Tammuz  are  closely  re- 
lated figures;  both  symbolise  vegetation — one  as  the 
personification  of  the  sun,  the  other  as  the  personifi- 
cation of  mother  earth.  The  combination  of  Tam- 
muz and  Ishtar,  as  husband  and  wife,  is  merely  the 
usual  artificial  attempt  to  combine  two  figures  that 
represent  the  same  idea — induced  in  this  instance  by 
the  analogy  of  the  male  and  female  principles.  There 
are,  in  fact,  indications  that  Tammuz  was,  at  cer- 
tain places,  or  at  an  early  period,  regarded  as  a  god- 
dess and  not  as  a  god. » 

The  story  of  Tammuz*s  annual  journey  to  the 

^  Zimmern,  Der  Bahylonische  Gott  Tamuz,  pp.  7  seq.,  from  which 
it  appears  that  Tammuz  is  designated  by  various  names,  as  Ama- 
Ushumgal-Anna  ("all  rilling  mother  of  heaven"),  Ningishzida, 
and  Kadi,  which  represent  female  deities. 


34^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

nether  world  is  paralleled  by  ishtar's  descent  into  the 
realm  of  Nergal  and  Ereshkigal.^  The  two  stories 
embod}^  the  same  myth  of  the  change  of  seasons,  and 
it  is  natural,  therefore,  that  with  the  later  predom- 
inance of  the  Ishtar  cult,  Ishtar  should  gradually  have 
displaced  Tammuz  in  the  official  ritual  of  the  temples. 
In  place  of  the  lament  for  Tammuz  we  have  the 
myth  of  Ishtar's  enforced  journey  to  Aralu, — as  the 
nether  world  was  commonly  termed,' — and  of  her 
ultimate  escape,  which  was  recited  in  the  temples 
at  the  festival  marking  the  waning  of  the  summer 
season;^  the  lament  for  the  goddess  was  tempered, 
however,  by  the  certain  hope  of  her  return.  Popular 
customs  survive  theoretical  and  official  reconstructions 
of  beliefs  and  practices  through  the  speculations  and 
the  intellectual  influence  of  priests.  The  testimony 
of  Ezekiel''  is  a  significant  witness  to  the  persistence 
in  the  Semitic  world,  as  late  as  the  sixth  century  B.C., 
of  the  custom  of  bewailing  the  disappearance  of 
Tammuz.  No  less  significant  is  the  spread  of  the 
Tammuz  myth  under  various  forms  far  beyond  the 
confines  of  the  Semitic  world.  Is  it,  perhaps,  also 
significant  that  the  Hebrew  prophet  describes  the 
women  of  Jerusalem  as  practising  this  rite?     In  all 

'  vSee  p.  370  seq.  »  See  p.  354. 

3  The  change  from  Tammuz  to  Ishtar  is  marked  by  the  later 
designation  of  the  6th  month — once  sacred  to  Tammuz  (see 
above,  p.  344) — as  "the  month  of  the  descent  of  Ishtar." 

<  Above,  p.  344. 


The  Temples  and  the  Cults       349 

religious  bodies,  as  has  already  been  suggested, » 
women  represent  the  conservative  element,  among 
whom  reHgious  customs  continue  in  practice  after  they 
have  been  abandoned  by  men.  The  women — outside 
of  their  functions  as  priestesses — took  no  part,  so  far 
as  we  know,  in  the  official  cult  of  Babylonia  and  As- 
syria, as  they  took  no  such  part  among  the  ancient 
Hebrews.  It  may  turn  out,  therefore,  to  be  the  case 
that  in  Babylonia,  as  in  Palestine,  the  non-official  or 
extra-official  cult  of  Tammuz  was  maintained  out- 
side of  the  temples  through  the  influence  of  the  female 
popiilation — as  a  popular  rite,  surviving  from  very 
ancient  days,  and  having  had  at  one  time  a  signifi- 
cance equal  to  that  which  was  afterwards  assumed 
by  the  cult  of  Ishtar. 

In  another  regard  the  mourning  for  Tammuz  is  in- 
vested with  a  special  interest.  Under  the  form  Ad6n, 
— a  title  of  Tammuz  signifying  "lord," — the  myth 
passed  to  the  Phoenicians,  and  thence  to  the  Greeks, 
who,  adapting  it  to  their  own  mythology  (which  may 
also  have  preserved  a  similar  myth  of  the  change  of 
seasons),  replace  Ishtar  by  Aphrodite. "*  The  story 
of  Adonis  and  Aphrodite  in  any  case  is  to  be 
traced  directly  to  the  Sumerian-Babylonian  Tammuz- 
Ishtar  myth.  The  weeping  for  the  lost  sun-god  is  the 
complement  to  the  rejoicing  at  the  return  of  the  sun- 
god    in  the    spring — the  new   year's  festival — when 

'  Above,  p.  313.      2  See  Frazer,  Adonis,  Attis,  and  Osiris,  p.  8. 


350  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

nature  awakens  to  new  life.  The  weeping  and  the 
rejoicing  appear  to  have  been  continued  up  to  late 
days.  In  one  form  or  another  we  find  among  Greeks 
and  Romans  the  commemoration  in  the  spring  of  the 
death  of  a  god,  followed  by  a  rejoicing  at  his  return. » 
In  view  of  this,  the  theory  has  been  advanced  that  in 
its  last  analysis,  the  story  of  the  crucifixion  and  resur- 
rection of  the  Christ  embodies  a  late  echo  of  the  Tam- 
muz- Adonis  myth.''  The  "son  of  God"  is  slain  to 
reappear  as  the  "risen  Lord,"  just  as  in  the  Phrygian 
story  of  Attis  and  Cybele,  and  in  the  Egyptian  tale  of 
Osiris  and  Isis,  we  have  another  form  of  the  same  myth 
symbolising  the  change  of  seasons.^ 

^  Frazer,  op.  cit.,  198  seq. 

*  To  this  Tammuz-Adonis  myth,  there  have  been  added  ele- 
ments taken  from  the  Roman  Saturnalia  and  the  Persian  Sacaea 
festival.  See  Vollmer,  Jesus  und  das  Sacaeanopfer  (Giessen,  1905) , 
and  other  literature  there  referred  to;  also  Frazer,  Golden  Bough, 
2d  ed.,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  186  seq.  It  is  perhaps  well  to  add  (in  view 
of  Andrew  Lang's  elaborate  criticism,  Magic  and  Religion,  pp. 
76-204)  that  all  these  extraneous  elements  affect  merely  the  form 
gradually  assumed  by  the  story  of  the  death  (or  disappearance) 
of  Jesus. 

3  Frazer,  Adonis,  Attis,  and  Osiris,  pp.  165  seq.  and  212  seg. 


LECTURE   VI 

ETHICS   AND   LIFE   AFTER   DEATH 


THE  view  that  life  continues  in  some  form  after 
death  has  ensued  is  so  common  among  people 
on  the  level  of  primitive  culture,  or  who  have  just 
risen  above  this  level,  that  its  presence  in  advanced 
reUgions  may  be  regarded  as  a  legacy  bequeathed  from 
the  earliest  period  in  the  history  of  mankind.  To  the 
savage  and  the  untutored  all  nature  is  instinct  with 
life.  The  changes  and  activity  that  he  sees  about 
him,  in  the  woods  and  fields,  in  the  streams  and 
mountains  and  in  the  heavens — the  boundless  extent 
of  ceaseless  change — he  ascribes  to  an  element  which 
he  instinctively  associates  with  the  life  of  which  he  is 
conscious  in  himself,  and  he  interprets  this  life  in  terms 
applicable  to  himself.  Man  in  the  earlier  stages  of 
his  development  is  unable  to  conceive  of  life  once 
begun  as  coming  to  an  end,  just  as  an  unsophisti- 
cated child  who,  when  it  begins  to  ponder  on  the  mys- 
tery of  existence,  is  incapable  of  grasping  the  thought 
of  death  as  a  total  extinction  of  life.     The  doubt  comes 

351 


352  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

at  a  later  stage  of  mental  development  and  so,  in 
the  history  of  mankind,  the  problem  involved  in  a 
discussion  regarding  life  after  death  is  to  determine 
the  factors  that  led  man  to  question  the  continuance 
of  life  in  some  form  after  it  had  fled  from  the  body. 
In  the  Old  Testament  it  is  only  in  the  later  books,  like 
Ecclesiastes  and  Job,  that  the  question  is  raised  or 
suggested  whether  or  not  there  is  anything  for  man 
to  look  forward  to  after  the  breath  of  life  has  passed 
out  of  him.  We  may  detect  in  certain  aspects  of  the 
problem  in  these  frankly  skeptical  productions  of  the 
Hebrew  mind  the  influence — direct  or  indirect — of 
Greek  philosophical  thought,  which  early  began  to 
concern  itself  with  this  problem.  Out  of  this  doubt 
there  arises  after  an  interval  of  some  centuries,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  Jewish  and  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  and  on  the  other,  the  belief  in 
a  resurrection  of  the  dead  in  some  form.  In  Bud- 
dhism we  see  the  persistency  of  the  beHef  that  life  is 
continuous  leading  to  the  hope  of  release  from  life, 
as  the  ideal  that  can  be  attained  only  by  those  who, 
after  a  succession  of  existences  in  which  they  have 
schooled  themselves  to  get  rid  of  the  desire  of  living, 
have  merited  also  by  their  increasing  purity  the  rare 
reward  of  Nirvana. » 


'  The  idea  does  not  appear  to  be  limited  to  India,  unless  we 
are  to  recognise  Hindu  influences  in  such  tales  as  that  of  the 
mediaeval  legend  of  the  Wandering  Jew,  who  is  condemned  to 


Ethics  and  Life  After  Death       353 

Here  and  there  we  find  in  Babylonian- Assyrian 
literature  faint  suggestions  of  skepticism,  but  the  pre- 
vailing view  throughout  all  periods  is  that  the  dead 
continue  in  a  conscious  or  semi-conscious  state  after 
this  life  is  come  to  an  end.  To  be  sure,  the  condition 
of  the  dead  is  not  one  to  be  envied.  They  are  con- 
demned to  inactivity,  which  in  itself  might  not  be 
regarded  as  an  unmixed  evil,  but  this  inactivity  car- 
ries with  it  a  deprivation  of  all  pleasures.  Deep 
down  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  there  was  pictured  a 
subterranean  cave  in  which  the  dead  are  huddled  to- 
gether. The  place  is  dark,  gloomy,  and  damp,  and  in 
a  poetic  work  it  is  described  as  a  neglected  and  forlorn 
palace,  where  dust  has  been  allowed  to  gather — a 
place  of  dense  darkness  where,  to  quote  the  fine  para- 
dox of  Job  (x.,  22),  ''even  light  is  as  darkness."  It  is 
a  land  from  which  there  is  no  return,  a  prison  in  which 
the  dead  are  confined  for  all  time,  or  if  the  shade  of 
some  spirit^  does  rise  up  to  earth,  it  is  for  a  short 
interval  only,  and  merely  to  trouble  the  living.  The 
horror  that  the  dwelling-place  of  the  dead  inspired  is 
illustrated  by  the  belief  that  makes  it  also  the  gen- 
live  as  a  punishment  for  mocking  Jesus  while  on  his  way  to  the 
cross,  or  in  the  story  of  the  Flying  Dutchman,  who  cannot  die 
until  another  life  is  voluntarily  sacrificed  for  his.  A  somewhat 
similar  thought  enters  as  a  factor  in  the  myths  of  Prometheus 
and  Tityos,  who  are  condemned  to  the  perpetual  tortures  of 
death,  and  yet  continue  to  live. 

^  See  above,  p.  309. 

23 


354  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

eral  abode  of  the  demons,  though  we  have  seen  that 
they  are  not  Hmited  to  this  abode.  Again,  this  dwell- 
ing-place is  pictured  as  a  great  city,  and,  curiously 
enough,  it  is  at  times  designated  like  the  temple  of 
Enlil  at  Nippur  as  E-Kur-Bad,  "Mountain-house  [or 
*' temple"]  of  the  dead."  The  most  common  name  for 
this  abode,  however,  is  Aralu — a  term  that  occurs  in 
Sumerian  compositions,  but  may  nevertheless  be  a 
good  Semitic  word.  By  the  side  of  this  term,  we 
find  other  poetic  names,  as  "the  house  of  Tammuz," 
based  upon  the  fact  that  the  solar  god  of  spring  and 
vegetation  is  obHged  to  spend  half  of  the  year  in 
the  abode  of  the  dead,  or  Irkallu,  which  is  also  the 
designation  of  a  god  of  the  subterranean  regions,  or 
Cuthah — the  seat  of  the  cult  of  Nergal, — because  of 
the  association  of  Nergal,  the  god  of  pestilence  and 
death,  with  the  lower  world.  The  names  and  meta- 
phors all  emphasise  the  gloomy  conceptions  connected 
with  the  abode  of  the  dead. 

It  was,  however,  inevitable  that  speculation  by 
choicer  minds  should  dwell  on  a  theme  so  fascinating 
and  important,  and  endeavour  to  bring  the  popular 
conceptions  into  harmony  with  the  conclusions 
reached  in  the  course  of  time  in  the  temple-schools. 
Corresponding  to  the  endeavour  to  connect  with  the 
personified  powers  of  nature  certain  ethical  qualities, 
reflecting  a  higher  degree  of  moral  development,  we 
meet  at  least  the  faint  inkling  of  the  view  that  the 


Ethics  and  Life  After  Death       355 

gods,  actuated  by  justice  and  mercy,  could  not  con- 
demn all  alike  to  a  fate  so  sad  as  eternal  confinement 
in  a  dark  cave.  Besides  Aralu,  there  was  also  an 
"Island  of  the  Blest,"  situated  at  the  confluence  of 
the  streams,  to  which  those  were  carried  who  had  won 
the  favour  of  the  gods.  One  of  these  favourites  is 
Ut-Napishtim,  who  was  sought  out  by  Ea,  the  god  of 
humanity,  as  one  worthy  to  escape  from  a  deluge 
that  destroyed  the  rest  of  mankind;  and  with  Ut- 
Napishtim,  his  wife  was  also  carried  to  the  island, 
where  both  of  them  continued  to  lead  a  life  not  unlike 
that  of  the  immortal  gods.  But  though  the  theory  of 
this  possible  rescue  seems  to  have  arisen  at  a  com- 
paratively early  period,  it  does  not  appear,  for  some 
reason,  to  have  been  developed  to  any  extent.  In 
this  respect.  Babylonia  presents  a  parallel  to  Greece, 
where  we  likewise  find  the  two  views,  Hades  for  the 
general  mass  of  humanity  and  a  blessed  island  for 
the  rare  exceptions — the  very  rare  exceptions — limited 
to  those  who,  like  Menelaos,  are  closely  related  to  the 
gods,  or,  like  Tiresias,  favoured  because  of  the  pos- 
session of  the  divine  gift  of  prophecy  in  an  unusual 
degree. 

We  might  have  supposed  that,  among  the  Baby- 
lonians, the  rulers,  as  standing  much  closer  to  the 
gods  than  the  common  people,  would  have  been  singled 
out  for  the  privilege  of  a  transfer  to  the  Island  of  the 
Blest,  but  this  does  not  appear  to  have  been  the  case. 


35^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Like  the  kings  and  heroes  of  the  Greek  epic,  they  all 
pass  to  the  land  of  no-return,  to  the  dark  dwelling 
underground.  An  exception  is  not  even  made  for 
kings  like  vSargon  and  Naram-Sin  of  Akkad,  or  for 
Dungi  of  the  Ur  dynasty  and  his  successors,  and  some 
of  the  riilers  of  Isin  and  Larsa,  who  have  the  sign  for 
deity  attached  to  their  names,  and  some  of  whom  had 
temples  dedicated  in  their  honour,  just  like  gods. 
The  divinity  of  these  Babylonian  kings  appears  to 
have  been,  as  with  the  Seleucid  rulers,  a  political  and 
not  a  religious  prerogative,  and  the  evidence  would 
seem  to  show^  that  this  poHtical  deification  of  kings 
was  closely  bound  up  with  their  control  of  Nippur  as 
the  paramount  religious  centre  of  the  country.  In 
theory,  the  ruler  of  this  city  was  the  god,  Enlil,  him- 
self, and,  therefore,  he  who  had  control  of  the  city 
was  put  on  a  parity  with  the  god,  as  his  son  or  re- 
presentative— the  vicar  of  Enlil  on  earth,  a  kind  of 
pontijex  maximus,  with  the  prerogatives  of  divinity  as 
the  symbol  of  his  office. 

We  do  not  find  that  the  speculations  of  the  Baby- 
lonian and  Assyrian  priests  ever  led  to  any  radical 
modification  of  the  conceptions  concerning  Aralu. 
It  remains  a  gloomy  place, — a  tragic  terminus  to 
earthly  joys,  and  always  contemplated  with  horror. 
The  refrain,  running  through  all  the  lessons  which  the 

^  See  Kugler's  admirable  discussion  of  the  problem  in  his 
Sternkunde  und  Sterndienst  in  Babel,  ii.,  i,  pp.  144-149. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       357 

priests  attached  to  popular  myths  in  giving  them  a 
literary  form,  is  that  no  man  can  hope  to  escape  the 
common  fate.  Enkidu/  who  is  introduced  into  the 
Gilgamesh  epic^  and  appears  to  be  in  some  respects  a 
counterpart  to  the  Biblical  Adam,^  is  created  by 
Aruru,  the  fashioner  of  mankind,  but  when  slain  by  the 
wiles  of  the  goddess  Ishtar,  goes  to  Arald  as  the  rest  of 
mankind.  Even  Gilgamesh  himself,  the  hero  of  the 
epic,  half -man,  half-god,  whose  adventures  represent 
a  strange  conglomeration  of  dimmed  historical  tradi- 
tion and  nature  myths,  is  depicted  as  being  seized 
with  the  fear  that  he  too,  like  Enkidu,  may  be  dragged 
to  the  world  of  the  dead.  He  seeks  to  fathom  the 
mystery  of  death  and,  in  the  hope  of  escaping  Aralti, 
undertakes  a  long  journey  in  quest  of  Ut-Napishtim, 
to  learn  from  him  how  he  had  attained  immortality. 
The  latter  tells  Gilgamesh  the  story  of  his  escape  from 
the  destructive  deluge.  Ut-Napishtim  and  his  wife 
are  filled  with  pity  for  the  stranger,  who  has  been 


^  On  this  reading  of  the  name  instead  of  Eabani,  as  hitherto 
assumed,  see  Ungnad  in  the  Orientalistische  Literaturzeitung,  vol. 
xiii.  (1910),  pp.  306,  307. 

'See,  for  an  analysis  of  the  epic,  Jastrow,  Religion  (English 
ed.,  pp.  467-517),  and  for  translations  Jensen  in  Keilinschriftliche 
Bibliothek,  vi.,  i,pp.  116-265;  the  same  aMthor's,  Das  Gilgamesh- 
epos  in  der  Weltliteratur,  and  Ungnad,  Das  Babylonische  Gilga- 
meshepos,  and,  also,  in  Altorientalische  Texte  und  Bilder  (ed.  Hugo 
Gressmann),  ii.,  pp.  39-61. 

3  See  Jastrow,  "Adam  and  Eve  in  Babylonian  Literature,"  in 
Amer.  Journal  of  Semitic  Languages,  vol.  xx.,  pp.  193-214. 


35^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

smitten  with  a  painful  disease.  They  afford  him  relief 
by  mystic  rites,  based  on  the  incantation  ritual,  but 
they  cannot  cure  him.  Gilgamesh  is  told  of  a  plant 
which  has  the  power  of  restoring  old  age  to  youth. 
He  seeks  for  it,  but  fails  to  find  it,  and,  resigned  to  his 
fate,  he  returns  to  his  home,  Uruk. 

The  last  episode  in  the  epic  furnishes  a  further  il- 
lustration of  the  sad  thoughts  aroused  in  the  minds 
of  the  priests  and  people  at  the  contemplation  of  the 
fate  in  store  for  those  who  have  shuffled  off  the  mor- 
tal coil.  Gilgamesh  is  anxious  to  find  out  at  least 
how  his  friend  and  companion,  Enkidu,  fares  in 
Araltl.  In  response  to  his  appeal,  the  shade  of  En- 
kidu rises  before  him.  "Tell  me,  my  friend,"  Gil- 
gamesh implores,  "tell  me  the  law  of  the  earth  which 
thou  hast  experienced."  Mournfully  the  reply  comes 
back,  "I  cannot  tell  thee,  my  friend,  I  cannot  tell 
thee."     Enkidu  continues: 

Were  I  to  tell  thee  the  law  of  the  earth  which  I  have  experienced, 
Thou  would  'st  sit  down  and  weep  the  whole  day. 

There  is  only  one  thing  that  can  make  the  fate  of 
the  dead  less  abhorrent.  A  proper  burial  with  an 
affectionate  care  of  the  corpse  ensures  at  least  a  quiet 
repose. 

Such  a  one  rests  on  a  couch  and  drinks  pure  water, 
But  he  whose  shade  has  no  rest  in  the  earth,  as  I  have 
seen  and  you  will  see,  ^ 
^  I.e.,  as  Enkidu  has  experienced,  and  as  Gilgamesh  will  ex- 
perience. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       359 

His  shade  has  no  rest  in  the  earth. 

Whose  shade  no  one  cares  for,  as  I  have  seen  and  you  will  see, 

What  is  left  over  in  the  pot,  remains  of  food 

That  are  thrown  in  the  street,  he  eats. 


II 


Proper  burial  is,  therefore,  all  essential,  even  though 
it  can  do  no  more  than  secure  peace  for  the  dead  in 
their  cheerless  abode,  and  protection  for  the  living 
by  preventing  the  dead  from  returning  in  gaunt  forms 
to  plague  them.  Libations  are  poured  forth  to  them 
at  the  grave,  and  food  offered  by  sorrowing  relatives. 

The  greatest  misfortune  that  can  happen  to  the 
dead  is  to  be  exposed  to  the  Hght  of  day ;  far  down  into 
the  Assyrian  period  we  find  this  exemplified  in  the 
boast  of  Ashurbanapal  that  he  had  destroyed  the 
tombs  of  the  kings  of  Elam,  and  removed  their  bodies 
from  their  resting-place.^  The  corpses  of  the  Baby- 
lonians who  took  part  in  a  rebellion,  fomented  by 
his  treacherous  brother  Shamash-shumukin,  Ashur- 
banapal scattered,  so  he  tells  us,^  "like  thorns  and 
thistles"  over  the  battle-field,  and  gave  them  to  dogs, 
and  swine,  and  to  the  birds  of  heaven.  At  the  close 
of  the  inscriptions  on  monuments  recording  the 
achievements  of  the  rulers,  and  also  on  the  so-called 

*  Rawlinson  V.,  Plate  6,  col.  vi.,  70-73  (Schrader,  Keilin- 
schriftliche  Bibliothek,  ii.,  p.  207). 

'  Rawlinson  V.,  Plate  4,  col.  iv.,  72-86  (Schrader,  I.e.,  p.  193).! 


36o  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

boundary  stones, »  recording  grants  of  lands,  or  other 
privileges,  curses  are  hurled  against  any  one  who 
destroys  the  record;  and  as  a  part  of  these  curses  is 
almost  invariably  the  wish  that  the  body  of  that 
ruthless  destroyer  may  be  cast  forth  unburied. 

Mutilation  of  the  corpses  of  foes,  so  frequently  em- 
phasised by  Assyrian  rulers,^  is  merely  another  phase 
of  this  curse  upon  the  dead.  On  one  of  our  oldest 
pictorial  monuments,  portraying  and  describing  the 
victory  of  Eannatum,  the  patesi  of  Lag  ash  {ca.  3000 
B.C.),  over  the  people  of  Umma,  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  careful  burial  of  the  king's  warriors,  and  the 
fate  allotted  to  the  enemy  is  shown  by  vultures  fly- 
ing off  with  heads  in  their  beaks.  ^  The  monument  is 
of  further  interest  in  depicting  the  ancient  custom  of 
burying  the  dead  unclad,  which  recalls  the  words  of 
Job  (i.,  21),  "naked  came  I  out  of  my  mother's  womb 
and  naked  shall  I  return  thither,"  which  may  be  an 
adumbration  of  this  custom.  To  this  day,  among 
Mohammedans  and  orthodox  Jews,  the  body  is  not 
buried  in  ordinary  clothes  but  is  merely  wrapped  in 

^  See  Plate  22. 

» E.g.,  in  the  Annals  of  Ashurbanapal,  Rawlinson,  V.,  PI.  3,  col. 
iii.,  36;  Plate  4,  col.  iv.,  135;  Plate  7,  col.  vii.,  39-47,  etc. 
(Schrader,  I.e.,  ii.,  pp.  181,  213,  etc.). 

3  See  Plate  31;  also  De  Sarzec,  Decouvertes,  en  Chaldee,  Plate 
3,  4;  Heuzey,  Catalogue  des  Antiquites  Chaldeennes,  p.  102,  and 
King,  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  facing  p.  138.  God  Ningirsu 
is  also  represented  as  clubbing  the  heads  of  warriors  gathered 
together  in  a  net  (King,  I.e.,  p.  131). 


PI.  31.     Stele  of  E-annatum,  Patesi  (and  King)  of  Lagash  (c.  2900  B.C.). 

Portions  of  the  reverse  of  a  remarkable  limestone  monument 
carved  on  both  sides  with  designs  and  inscriptions.  Found  at 
Telloh.  See  De  Sarzec,  Deconvertes,  Plates  3  to  4  ter,  pp.  94-103, 
174-195;  Heuzey,  Catalogue,  pp.  101-117,  andHeuzeyandThureau- 
Dangin,  Restitution  Materielle  de  la  Stele  des  Vautours  (Paris 
1909).  The  monument  was  found  in  a  badly  mutilated  condition, 
but  by  careful  study  the  seven  pieces  now  recovered  enable  us  to 
form  a  fairly  accurate  ^dew  of  it.  It  represents  the  conquest  of 
the  people  of  Umma  by  Eannatum,  and  records  the  solemn  agree- 
ment made  between  Eannatum  and  the  people  of  Umma.  The 
upper  piece  represents  \-ultures  flying  off  with  the  heads  of  the 
slain  opponents — to  illustrate  their  dreadful  fate.  These  dead  are 
shown  in  the  second  figure,  while  in  the  third  others  who  have 
fallen  in  battle  are  carefully  arranged  in  groups  and  a  burial 
mound  is  being  built  over  them  by  attendants  who  carry  the  earth 
for  the  burial  in  baskets  placed  on  their  heads.  Traces  of  a  cere- 
monial offering  to  the  dead  are  to  be  seen  in  another  fragment. 
The  designs  on  the  obverse  are  symbolical — the  chief  figure  being 
the  patron  deity,  Ningirsu  with  the  eagle  on  two  lions  as  the  em- 
blem of  the  god  (see  PI.  5,  Fig.  i)  in  his  hand,  and  the  net  in  which 
the  deity  has  caught  the  enemies. 


Stele  of  Eannatum,  Patesi  of 
Lagash  (c.  2900  B.  C.) 

Fig.  I.     Mutilation  of  the  Dead  Fig.  2.     Dead  arranged  in  Rows 

Fig.  3.     Burial  of  Dead 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       361 

a  shroud;  this  custom  is  only  a  degree  removed  from 
the  older  custom  of  naked  burial.  Whether  or  not 
in  Babylonia  and  Assyria  this  custom  was  also  thus 
modified  as  a  concession  to  growing  refinement,  we 
do  not  know,  but  presumably  in  later  times  the  dead 
were  covered  before  being  consigned  to  the  earth. 
There  are  also  some  reasons  for  believing  that,  at 
one  time,  it  was  customary  to  sew  the  dead  in 
bags,  or  wrap  them  in  mats  of  reeds.  At  all  times, 
however,  the  modes  of  burial  retained  their  simplicity. 
If  from  knowledge  derived  from  later  ages  we  may 
draw  conclusions  for  earlier  ages,  it  would  seem  that 
the  general  custom  was  to  place  the  dead  in  a  sitting 
or  half-reclining  posture,  on  reed  mats,  and  to  cover 
them  with  a  large  jar  or  dish,  or  to  place  them  in  clay 
compartments  having  the  shape  of  bath-tubs.^  The 
usual  place  of  burial  seems  to  have  been  in  vaults, 
often  beneath  the  houses  of  the  living. "^  In  later 
periods,  we  find  the  tubs  replaced  by  the  long  sHpper- 
shaped  clay  coffins,  with  an  opening  at  one  end  into 
which  the  body  was  forced.^  Throughout  these  va- 
rious customs  a  desire  is  indicated  not  merely  to 
bury  the  body,  but  to  imprison  it  safely  so  as  to  avoid 
the  danger  of  a  possible  escape.  Weapons  and  orna- 
ments were  placed  on  the  graves,  and   also  various 

^  Hilprecht,  Explorations  in  Bible  Lands,  facing  p.  337. 
^  Mitteilungen  der  Deiitschen  Orient-Gesellschaft,  Nos.  27  and  31 ; 
for  another  somewhat  different  mode  of  burial,  see  No.  42. 
3  See  Plate  32. 


362  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

kinds  of  food,  though  whether  or  not  this  was  a  com- 
mon practice  at  all  periods  has  not  yet  been  deter- 
mined. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said,  the  tombs  of  the  Baby- 
lonians and  Assyrians  were  always  exceedingly  simple, 
and  we  find  no  indications  whatever  that  even  for 
monarchs  elaborate  structures  were  erected  as  their 
resting-place.  Herein  Babylonia  and  Assyria  present 
a  striking  contrast  to  Egypt,  which  corresponds  to  the 
difference  no  less  striking  between  the  two  nations  in 
their  conceptions  of  life  after  death.  In  Egypt,  the 
preservation  of  the  body  was  a  condition  essential 
to  the  well-being  of  the  dead,  whereas  in  Babylonia 
a  mere  burial  was  all-sufficient  and  no  special  care 
was  taken  to  keep  the  body  from  decay.  The  elab- 
orate mortuary  ceremonial  in  Egypt  ^  finds  no 
parallel  in  the  Euphrates  Valley,  where  the  general 
feeling  appears  to  be  that  for  the  dead  there  was 
not  much  that  could  be  done.  Such  customs  as 
were  observed  were  prompted,  as  has  been  said, 
rather  by  a  desire  to  protect  the  living  from  being  an- 
noyed or  tortured  by  the  shades  of  the  unburied  or 
neglected  dead.  That  this  fear  was  genuine  is  in- 
dicated by  the  belief  in  a  class  of  demons,  known  as 
etimmuj''  which  means  the  "shade"  of  a  departed 
person.      This    conception   is   best   explained  as    a 

^  See  Budge,    The  Mummy,    Chapters    on  Egyptian   Funeral 
ArchcBology  (London,  1893).  ="  See  above,  p.  309,  note  i. 


PI.  32.     Babylonian  Coffins. 

Fig.  I.     Earlier  Type — showing  bath-tub   shape. 

Fig.  2.  Later  Type — slipper-shaped  coffins,  chiefly  of  the 
Persian  period,  which  frequently  have  glazed  covers  with  orna- 
mental designs.  The  illustrations  showing  the  coffins  as  found 
are  from  photographs  taken  by  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
Expedition  to  Nippur. 

The  coffins  may  be  regarded  as  typical  of  the  mode  of  burying 
the  dead  in  coffins  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  though  as  indicated 
in  the  text  there  are  various  other  modes.  See  the  Illustrations  and 
comments  in  Peters,  Nippur,  vol.  ii.,  facing  pp,  214-220;  Hil- 
precht,  Excavations  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  pp.  337  and  422  seq. 
Recently,  e.  g.  (Mitteilungen  der  Deutschen  Orient-Gesellschaft, 
No.  42,  p.  14  seq.),  graves  have  been  found  in  Babylon  which  were 
vaulted  in  by  brick  walls.  So  also  at  Nippur  (Hilprecht,  Ex- 
cavations in  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  p.  510)  and  Ashur,  Mitteilungen 
der  Deutschen  Orient-Gesellschaft,  No.  27,  pp.  29-32  (also  Nos.  25, 
p.  55;  26,  p.  13). 


Fig.  I.     Earlier  Type  of  Babylonian  Coffins 


Fig.  2.     Later  Type  of  Slipper- 
Shaped  Coffins 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       363 

survival  of  primitive  beliefs  found  elsewhere,  which 
among  many  people  in  a  stage  of  primitive  culture  led 
to  a  widespread  and  complicated  ancestor  worship. 
That  this  worship  existed  in  Babylonia  also  is  highly 
probable,  but  it  must  have  died  out  as  part  of  the 
official  cult  before  we  reach  the  period  for  which  we 
have  documentary  material;  we  find  no  references  to 
it  in  the  ritual  texts 


III 


In  seeking  a  reason  why  the  speculations  of  the 
temple-schools,  regarding  the  mysteries  of  the  uni- 
verse, should  not  have  led  to  the  doctrine  of  a  more 
cheerful  destiny  for  the  dead  such  as  in  the  Blessed 
Island  (to  which,  as  we  have  seen,  only  a  few  favourites 
of  the  gods  were  admitted) ,  we  are  surprised  by  the  al- 
most complete  absence  of  all  ethical  considerations 
in  connection  with  the  dead. 

While  much  stress  was  at  all  times  laid  upon  con- 
duct agreeable  to  the  gods  (and  one  of  the  most  sig- 
ficant  members  of  the  pantheon  is  Shamash,  the 
god  of  justice  and  righteousness),  the  thought  that 
good  deeds  will  find  a  reward  from  the  gods  after 
life  has  ceased  is  absent  from  the  religious  literature 
of  Babylonia  and  Assyria.  There  is  a  special  pan- 
theon for  the  nether  world,  where  the  dead  sojourn, 
but  there  is  no  figure  such  as  Osiris  in  the  Egyptian 


364  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

religion,  the  judge  of  the  dead,  who  weighs  the  good 
deeds  against  the  bad  in  order  to  decide  the  destiny 
of  the  soul.  To  be  sure,  everything  is  done  by  the  liv- 
ing to  secure  the  favour  of  the  gods,  to  appease  their 
anger,  and  to  regain  their  favour  b 3^  elaborate  expiatory 
rites,  and  by  confession  of  sins,  and  yet  all  the  hopes 
of  the  people  are  centred  upon  earthly  happiness  and 
present  success.  The  gods  appear  to  be  concerned 
neither  for  the  dead  nor  with  them.  Their  interest, 
like  that  of  their  worshippers,  was  restricted  to  the 
living  world.  Even  with  so  exceptional  a  mortal  as 
Ut-Napishtim,  who  is  carried  to  the  Blessed  Island, 
no  motive  is  ascribed  to  Ea,  who  warns  Ut-Napishtim 
of  the  coming  destruction  of  mankind,  and  provides 
for  his  escape  by  bidding  him  build  a  ship.  It  is  not 
even  alleged  of  Ut-Napishtim  that  he  was  a  faithful 
worshipper,  much  less  that  by  exemplary  conduct  he 
merited  the  special  favour  bestowed  on  him.  Of  his 
Biblical  counterpart,  Noah,  we  are  told  that  he  was 
"perfect  and  righteous" — praises  that  are  applied  to 
only  one  other  character  in  the  whole  range  of  Old 
Testament  literature,  to  wit,  Job.^  But  no  such  en- 
comium is  passed  on  Ut-Napishtim,  who,  in  another 
version,  is  designated  merely  as  a  "very  clever  one."  ^ 

*  Chap,  xii.,  4. 

'  Atra-khasis,  the  inverted  form  of  which,  Khasis-atra,  fur- 
nishes the  name  Xisuthros  (in  Berosus'  Hst  of  mythical  antedilu- 
vian kings),  who  is  the  hero  of  the  deluge.  See  Zimmern, 
Keilinschriften  und  das  Alte  Testament,  ii.,  pp.  532  and  543  seq. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       365 

Had  an  ethical  factor  been  introduced,  in  however 
faint  a  degree,  we  should  have  found  a  decided  modi- 
fication of  the  primitive  views  in  regard  to  the  fate  of 
the  dead.  Perhaps  there  might  have  been  a  develop- 
ment not  unlike  that  which  took  place  among  the 
Hebrews,  who,  starting  from  the  same  point  as  the 
Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  reached  the  conclusion 
(as  a  natural  corollary  to  the  ethical  transformation 
which  the  conception  of  their  national  deity,  Jahweh, 
underwent)  that  a  god  of  justice  and  mercy  extended 
his  protection  to  the  dead  as  well  as  to  the  living,  and 
that  those  who  suffered  injustice  in  this  world  would 
find  a  compensatory  reward  in  the  next. 

Among  the  Babylonians  we  have,  as  the  last  word 
on  the  subject,  an  expression  of  sad  resignation  that 
man  must  be  content  with  the  joys  of  this  world. 
Death  is  an  immitigated  evil,  and  the  favour  of  the 
gods  is  shown  by  their  willingness  to  save  the  victims 
as  long  as  possible  from  the  cold  and  silent  grave. 
A  deity  is  occasionally  addressed  in  hymns  as  "the 
restorer  of  the  dead  to  life,"  but  only  where  he  saves 
those  standing  on  the  brink  of  the  grave — leading 
them  back  to  enjoy  the  warm  sunlight  a  little  longer. 

The  question  indeed  was  raised  in  Babylonia 
why  after  a  brief  existence  man  was  condemned  to 
eternal  gloom?  The  answer,  that  is  given,  is  depress- 
ing but  most  characteristic  of  the  arrest  in  the  develop- 
ment of  ethical  conceptions  concerning  the  gods,  in 


366  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

spite  of  certain  appearances  to  the  contrary.  The 
gods  themselves  are  represented,  in  an  interesting 
tale,  based  on  a  nature-myth,  as  opposed  to  grant- 
ing mankind  immortal  life,  and  actually  having  re- 
course to  a  deception,  in  order  to  prevent  another 
favourite  of  Ea — the  god  of  humanity — from  attain- 
ing the  desired  goal. 

The  story,  ^  as  is  so  frequently  the  case,  is  com- 
posite. A  lament  for  the  disappearance  of  the  two 
gods  of  vegetation — Tammuz  and  Ningishzida^ — is 
interlaced  with  a  story  of  a  certain  Adapa,  who  is 
summoned  to  appear  before  Anu,  the  god  of  heaven, 
for  having,  while  fishing,  broken  the  wings  of  the 
south- wind,  so  that  for  seven  days  that  wind  did  not 
blow.  At  the  suggestion  of  Ea,  Adapa  dons  a  mourn- 
ing garb  before  coming  into  the  presence  of  Anu,  and 
is  told  to  answer,  when  asked  why  he  had  done  so, 
that  he  is  mourning  for  two  deities  who  have  dis- 
appeared from  earth.     He  is  further  cautioned  against 

^  See  Jastrow,  Religion  (English  ed.,  pp.  544-555);  Ungnad 
in  Gressmann's  Altorientalische  Texte  und  Bilder,  ii.,  pp.  34-38. 

'Tammuz  and  Ningishzida  are  "doublets,"  viewed  in  the  re- 
lation of  husband  and  wife.  Each  represents  the  sun-god  of  the 
spring  that  brings  vegetation  but  is  carried  away  from  the  earth 
with  the  waning  of  the  summer  season.  Ningishzida,  it  will  be 
recalled  (above,  p.  347,  note  i),  is  one  of  the  designations  of  the 
consort  of  Tammuz.  The  mourning  garb  of  Adapa  symbolises  the 
lament  for  Tammuz  (or  Ningishzida),  and  the  story  is  therefore 
part  of  a  myth  reflecting  the  change  of  seasons.  With  this 
myth,  the  story  of  Adapa,  which  is  of  an  entirely  different 
order,  has  been  combined. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       367 

drinking  the  waters  of  death,  or  eating  the  food  of 
death  that  will  be  offered  him  when  he  comes  before 
the  council  of  the  gods.  Adapa  faithfully  carries 
out  the  instructions,  but  Tammuz  and  Ningishzida, 
the  guardians  at  the  gate  of  the  heavens,  are  moved 
by  pity  when  they  learn  from  Adapa  that  he  is 
mourning  for  their  own  removal  from  earth,  and  decide 
to  offer  him  food  of  life  and  water  of  life.  Adapa, 
ignorant  of  the  substitution,  refuses  both,  and  thus 
forfeits  immortal  life.  The  tale  implies  that,  while 
Tammuz  and  Ningishzida  are  distressed  at  Adapa's 
error,  Anu,  the  head  of  the  pantheon,  experiences  a 
sense  of  relief,  in  the  assurance  that  man  is  not  de- 
stined to  receive  the  boon  of  the  gods — immortality. 
The  tale  belongs  to  the  same  class  as  the  famous  one 
in  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis,  where,  to  be  sure, 
Adam^  is  punished  for  disobedience  to  the  divine  com- 
mand, but  there  is  a  decided  trace  of  the  belief  that 
the  gods  do  not  wish  men  to  be  immortal  in  the  fear 
uttered  (Genesis  iii.,  22)  by  Jahweh-Elohim  that  man, 
having  tasted  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  "may  find  his 
way  to  the  tree  of  life  and  live  for  ever." 

The  two  tales — of  Adapa  and  of  Adam — certainly 
stand  in  some  relation  to  each  other.  Both  are  in- 
tended as  an  answer  to  the  question  why  man  is  not 

^  The  name  Adam,  although  it  has  a  Hebrew  etymology,  may 
have  been  suggested  by  Adapa,  which  might  also  be  read  Adawat 
as  Prof.  Sayce  was  the  first  to  point  out. 


368  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

immortal.  They  issue  from  a  common  source.  The 
Biblical  tale  has  been  stripped  almost  entirely  of  its 
mythical  aspects,  as  is  the  case  with  other  tales  in  the 
early  chapters  of  Genesis  which  may  be  traced  back 
to  Babylonian  prototypes,^  but  the  real  contrast  be- 
tween the  two  is  the  introduction  of  the  ethical  factor 
in  the  Hebrew  version.  Jahweh-Elohim,  like  Anu, 
does  not  desire  man  to  be  immortal,  but  the  Hebrew 
writer  justifies  this  attitude  by  Adam's  disobe- 
dience, whereas  the  Babylonian  in  order  to  answer 
the  question  is  forced  to  have  recourse  to  a  decep- 
tion practised  upon  man;  Adapa  obeys  and  yet  is 
punished.  That  is  the  gist  of  the  Babylonian  tale, 
which  so  well  illustrates  the  absence  of  an  ethical 
factor  in  the  current  views  regarding  life  after  death. 

IV 

The  gods  who  are  placed  in  control  of  Aralii  par- 
take of  the  same  gloomy  and  forbidding  character 
as  the  abode  over  which  they  rule.  At  the  head 
stands  the  god  of  pestilence  and  death,  Nergal,* 
identified  in  astrology  with  the  ill-omened  planet 
Mars,  whose  centre  of  worship,  Cuthah,  became,  as  we 
have  seen,  one  of  the  designations  of  the  nether  world. 
By  the  side  of  Nergal  stands  his  consort  Ereshkigal  (or 
Allatu) — the  Proserpine  of  Babylonian  mythology, — 

*  See  below,  p.  415.  '  See  above,  p.  334. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       369 

as  forbidding  in  her  nature  as  he  is,  and  who  appears 
to  have  been,  originally,  the  presiding  genius  of  Aralll 
with  whom  Nergal  is  subsequently  associated. 

A  myth  ^  describes  how  Nergal  invaded  the  domain 
of  Ereshkigal,  and  forced  her  to  yield  her  dominion  to 
him.  The  gods  are  depicted  as  holding  a  feast  to 
which  all  come  except  Ereshkigal.  She  sends  her 
grim  messenger  Namtar — that  is,  the  "demon  of 
plague" — to  the  gods,  among  whom  there  is  one,  Ner- 
gal, who  fails  to  pay  him  a  proper  respect.  When 
Ereshkigal  hears  of  this,  she  is  enraged  and  demands 
the  death  of  Nergal.  The  latter,  undaunted,  proceeds 
to  the  abode  of  the  angry  goddess,  encouraged  to  do 
so  apparently  by  Enlil  and  the  gods  of  the  pantheon. 
A  gang  of  fourteen  demons,  whose  names  indicate  the 
tortures  and  misery  inflicted  by  Nergal,  accompany 
the  latter.  He  stations  them  at  the  gates  of  Eresh- 
kigal's  domain  so  as  to  prevent  her  escape.  A 
violent  scene  ensues  when  Nergal  and  Ereshkigal 
meet.  Nergal  drags  the  goddess  from  her  throne  by 
the  hair,  overpowers  her,  and  threatens  to  kill  her. 
Ereshkigal  pleads  for  mercy,  and  agrees  to  share  with 
him  her  dominion. 

Do  not  kill  me,  my  brother!     Let  me  tell  thee  something. 

Nergal  desists  and  Ereshkigal  continues: 

^  ] astvow,  Religion  (English  ed.),  pp.  584  seq.;  Jensen,  Keil- 
inschriftliche  Bibliothek,  vi.,  i,  pp.  72-79;  Ungnad,  op.cit.,  pp. 
69-71. 

24 


370  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Be  my  husband  and  I  will  be  thy  wife. 

I  will  grant  thee  sovereignty  in  the  wide  earth,  entrusting  to 

thee  the  tablet  of  wisdom. 
Thou  shalt  be  master,  and  I  the  mistress* 

In  this  way  the  myth  endeavours  to  account  for  the 
existence  of  two  rulers  in  Aralu,  but  one  may  doubt 
that  a  union  so  inauspiciously  begun  was  very  happy. 

Another  myth,  again  portraying  the  change  of 
seasons,  ^  describes  the  entrance  of  Ishtar,  the  goddess 
of  vegetation,  into  the  domain  of  Ereshkigal.  The 
gradual  decay  of  the  summer  season  is  symbolised  by 
the  piece  of  clothing,  or  ornament,  which  Ishtar  is 
obliged  to  hand  to  the  guardian  at  each  of  the  seven 
gates  leading  to  the  presence  of  Ereshkigal,  until, 
when  Ishtar  appears  at  last  before  her  sister,  she 
stands  there  entirely  naked.  All  trace  of  vegetation 
has  disappeared,  and  nature  is  bare  when  the  wintry 
season  appears  and  storms  set  in.  In  a  rage  Eresh- 
kigal flies  at  her  sister  Ishtar,  and  orders  her  messenger 
Namtar  to  keep  the  goddess  a  prisoner  in  her  palace, 
from  which  she  is  released,  however,  after  some  time, 
by  an  envoy  of  Ea.  While  Ishtar  is  in  the  nether 
world,  all  life  and  fertility  cease  on  earth — a  clear 
indication  of  the  meaning  of  the  myth.  The  gods 
mourn  her  departure.  Shamash  the  sun-god  laments 
before  Sin  and  Ea: 

^  Jastrow,  Religion  (English  ed.),  pp.  565-575;  Jensen, /.c,  pp. 
80-91;  Ungnad,  I.e.,  pp.  65-69. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       371 

Ishtar  has  descended  Into  the  earth  and  is  not  come  up. 
Since  Ishtar  is  gone  to  the  land  of  no-return, 
The  bull  cares  not  for  the  cow,  the  ass  cares  not  for  the  jenny, 
The  man  cares  not  for  the  maid  in  the  market  S 

The  man  sleeps  in  his  place, 

The  wife  sleeps  alone. 

Ea  creates  a  mysterious  being,  Asushu-namir,  ^ 
whom  he  dispatches  to  the  nether  world  to  bring  the 
goddess  back  to  earth.  The  messenger  of  Ea  is 
clearly  a  cotmterpart  of  Tammuz,  the  solar  god  of 
the  spring,  who  brings  new  life  to  mother  earth. 
Ishtar  is  sprinkled  with  the  water  of  life  by  Asushu- 
namir  and,  as  she  is  led  out  of  her  prison,  each  piece 
of  clothing  or  ornament  is  returned  to  her  in  passing 
from  one  gate  to  the  other,  until  she  emerges  in  all 
her  former  glory  and  splendour.  The  tale  forming 
originally,  perhaps,  part  of  the  cult  of  Tammuz,  and 
recited  at  the  season  commemorating  the  snatching 
away  of  the  youthful  god,  illustrates  again  the  hope- 
lessness of  escape  from  the  nether  world  for  ordinary 
mortals.  Ishtar  can  be  released  from  her  imprison- 
ment when  the  spring  comes.  Tammuz,  too,  is  re- 
vived and  returns  to  the  world;  but  alas  for  mankind, 
doomed  to  eternal  imprisonment  in  the  "land  of  no- 
return"!     The  tale  ends  with  a  suggestion  of  hope 

'7.e.,  does  not  go  out  to  woo.  See  Herodotus,  Book  I, 
§  196. 

'  Signifying  "his  rising  is  brilliant" — evidently  the  designation 
of  a  solar  deity. 


372  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

that  "in  the  days  of  Tammuz,"  that  is  at  the  lament 
for  Tammuz  (which  here  assumes  the  character  of  a 
general  lament  for  the  dead),  the  dead,  roused  by  the 
plaints  of  the  living,  may  rise  and  enjoy  the  incense 
offered  to  them — but  that  is  all.  They  cannot  be 
brought  back  to  earth  and  sunlight. 

The  messengers  and  attendants  of  Nergal  and 
Ereshkigal  are  the  demons  whom  we  have  met  in 
the  incantation  rituals.  They  are  the  precursors  of 
all  kinds  of  misery  and  ills  to  mankind,  sent  as  mes- 
sengers from  the  nether  world  to  plague  men,  women, 
and  children  with  disease,  stirring  up  strife  and  rivalry 
in  the  world,  separating  brother  from  brother,  de- 
frauding the  labourer  of  the  fruits  of  his  labour,  and 
spreading  havoc  and  misery  on  all  sides;  depicted  as 
ferocious  and  terrifying  creatures,  ruthless  and  eter- 
nally bent  on  mischief  and  evil.  The  association  of 
these  demons  with  the  world  where  no  life  is,  further 
emphasises  the  view  held  of  the  fate  of  the  dead. 
With  such  beings  as  their  gaolers  what  hope  was  there 
for  those  who  were  imprisoned  in  the  great  cavern? 
If  conscious  of  their  state,  as  they  appear  to  have 
been,  what  emotion  could  they  have  but  that  of 
perpetual  terror? 

The  absence  of  the  ethical  factor  in  the  concep- 
tion of  life  after  death,  preventing,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  rise  of  a  doctrine  of  retribution  for  the  wicked, 
and  belief  in  a  better  fate  for  those  who  had  lived  a 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       373 

virtuous  and  godly  life,  had  at  least  a  compensation  in 
not  leading  to  any  dogma  of  actual  bodily  sufferings 
for  the  dead.  The  dead  were  at  all  events  secure 
from  the  demons  who  came  up  to  plague  the  living, 
but  whose  duty  so  far  as  the  dead  were  concerned 
seemed  to  be  limited  to  keeping  the  departed  shades 
in  their  prison.  Nor  did  the  gods  of  the  upper  world 
concern  themselves  with  the  dead,  and  while  in  the 
descriptions  of  Nergal  and  Ereshkigal  and  their  at- 
tendants we  have  all  the  elements  needed  for  the  re- 
velation of  the  tortures  of  hell,  so  vividly  portrayed  by 
Christian  and  Mohammedan  theologians,  so  long 
as  Aralu  remained  the  abode  of  all  the  dead,  it  was 
free  from  the  cries  of  the  condemned — a  gloomy  but 
a  silent  habitation.  A  hell  full  of  tortures  is  the 
counterpart  of  a  heaven  full  of  joys.  The  Babylon- 
ian-Assyrian religion  had  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other;  and  the  natural  consequence  was  the  doctrine 
that  what  happiness  man  may  desire  must  be  secured 
in  this  world.     It  was  now  or  never. 

This  lesson  is  actually  drawn  in  a  version  of  the 
Gilgamesh  epic,  ^  which,  be  it  remembered,  dates  from 
the  period  of  Hammurapi.  The  hero,  smitten  with 
disease  and  fearing  death,  is  discouraged  by  the  gods 
themselves  in  his  quest  of  life,  and  in  his  desire  to 

^  Meissner,  "Ein  altbabylonisches  Fragment  des  Gilgamos- 
epos"  {Mitteilungen  der  Vorderasiatischen  Gesellschaft,  vol.  vii., 
No.  I). 


374  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

escape  the  fate  of  his  companion  Enkidu.^    Sha- 
mash,  the  sun-god,  tells  him: 

Gilgamesh,  whither  hurriest  thou? 

The  life  that  thou  seekest  thou  wilt  not  find. 

Sabitu,  a  maiden,  dwelling  on  the  seacoast,  to 
whom  Gilgamesh  goes,  tells  him  the  same.  In  re- 
ply to  the  following  greeting  of  the  hero: 

Now,  O  Sabitu,  that  I  see  thy  countenance, 
May  I  not  see  death  which  I  fear! 

Sabitu  imparts  to  him  a  guidance  for  life : 

Gilgamesh,  whither  hurriest  thou? 

The  life  that  thou  seekest  thou  wilt  not  find. 

When  the  gods  created  man, 

They  fixed  death  for  mankind. 

Life  they  took  in  their  own  hand. 

Thou,  0  Gilgamesh,  let  thy  belly  be  filled  1 

Day  and  night  be  merry. 

Daily  celebrate  a  feast, 

Day  and  night  dance  and  make  merry! 

Clean  be  thy  clothes, 

Thy  head  be  washed,  bathe  in  water! 

Look  joyfully  on  the  child  that  grasps  thy  hand, 

Be  happy  with  the  wife  in  thine  arms! 

This  is  the  philosophy  of  those  whom  Isaiah  (xxii., 

13)  denounces  as  indifferent  to  the  future:     "Let  us 

eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  must  die."     Like 

an  echo  of  the  Babylonian  poem  the  refrain  of  Ec- 

clesiastes  rings  in  our  ears:* 

*  See  above,  p.  357. 

'  Chaps,  ii.,  24;  iii.,  12,  13;  v.,  18;  viii.,  15 — the  same  thought  in 
slightly  varied  forms. 


PL  33.    Assyrian  Type  of  Gilgamesh,  the  Hero  of  the  Babylonian  Epic. 

Found  at  Khorsabad.  See  Botta  et  Flandin,  Monument  de 
Ninive,  Vol.  I.,  PI.  41;  a  second  specimen,  PI.  47,  like  the  one  here 
reproduced — ^both  portraying  Gilgamesh  in  the  act  of  strangling 
a  lion.  The  scene  is  frequently  reproduced  in  a  variety  of  forms 
on  seal  cylinders,  and  e\-idently  represents  one  of  his  heroic 
deeds,  though  not  included  in  the  portions  of  the  Epic  that  have 
up  to  the  present  been  recovered.  See  Ward,  Seal  Cylinders  of 
Western  Asia,  Chapter  X.     See  also  PI.  28,  Fig.  2. 


Ass\Tian  Type  of  Gilgaiiiesh 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       375 

There  is  nothing  better  for  a  man  than  that  he  should  eat,  and 
that  his  soul  should  enjoy  his  labour. 

"All  go  to  one  place,"  says  Ecclesiastes  (iii.,  20). 
"All  are  of  the  dust  and  all  turn  to  dust.  Vanity, 
vanity — all  is  vanity." 

Almost  the  very  words  of  the  Babylonian  poem  are 
found  in  a  famous  passage  of  Ecclesiastes  (ix.,  7-9) : 

Go  thy  way,  eat  thy  bread  with  joy  and  drink  thy  wine  with  a 
merry  heart.  Let  thy  garments  be  always  white,  and  let  thy 
head  not  lack  ointment.  Live  joyfully  with  thy  wife  whom 
thou  lovest,  all  the  days  of  thy  life  of  vanity  which  he  has  given 
thee  under  the  sun — for  this  is  thy  portion.  ^ 

The  pious  Hebrew  mind  found  the  corrective  to  this 
view  of  life  in  the  conception  of  a  stern  but  just  god, 
acting  according  to  self-imposed  standards  of  right 
and  wrong,  whose  rule  extends  beyond  the  grave. 
This  attitude  finds  expression  in  the  numerous  addi- 
tions that  were  made  to  Ecclesiastes  in  order  to  coun- 
teract the  frankly  cynical  teachings  of  the  original 
work,  and  to  tone  down  its  undisguised  skepticism. 
"Know,"  says  one  of  these  glossators,  "that  for  all 
these  things  God  will  bring  thee  unto  judgment" 
(xi.,  9).  "The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter,"  says 
another,   "is  to  fear  God  and  keep  his  command- 

^  It  is  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that  there  is  a  direct 
connection  between  these  words  and  the  passage  from  the  Gil- 
gamesh  epic.  The  white  garments,  as  contrasted  with  black, 
are  symbols  of  joy,  and  the  "pure"  garments  in  the  Babylonian 
poem  convey  the  same  idea.  The  order  of  enumeration,  "gar- 
ments," "head,"  "wife,"  is  the  same  in  both. 


2)7^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

ments"  (xii.,  13).     "A  good  name,"  says  a  third,  "is 
better  than  precious  ointment"  (vii.,  i).^ 

Ethical  idealism,  by  which  is  here  meant  a  high 
sense  of  duty  and  a  noble  view  of  life,  is  possible 
only — so  it  would  seem — under  two  conditions,  either 
through  a  strong  conviction  that  there  is  a  compensa- 
tion elsewhere  for  the  wrongs,  the  injustice,  and  the 
suffering  in  this  world,  or  through  an  equally  strong 
conviction  that  the  unknown  goal  toward  which  man- 
kind is  striving  can  be  reached  only  by  the  moral 
growth  and  ultimate  perfection  of  the  human  race — 
whatever  the  future  may  have  in  store.  The  ethics 
of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  did  not  look  be- 
yond this  world,  and  their  standards  were  adapted  to 
present  needs  and  not  to  future  possibilities.  The 
thought  of  the  gloomy  Aralu  in  store  for  all  coloured 

'  On  these  and  other  additions,  made  with  the  intent  to  change 
a  skeptical  book  into  a  pious  production,  see  Haupt,  "The  Book 
of  Ecclesiastes,"  in  Oriental  Studies  of  the  Oriental  Club  oj  Phila- 
delphia (Boston,  1894),  pp.  254  seq.,  the  same  author's  Book 
of  Ecclesiastes  (Baltimore,  1905),  and  Barton,  Critical  and  Ex- 
egetical  Commentary  on  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  pp.  43-46.  De- 
spite these  additions  to  Ecclesiastes,  considerable  opposition 
was  manifested  against  its  admittance  into  the  Jewish  canon, 
on  which  see  Barton,  I.e.,  pp.  5  seq.  A  parallel  to  this  endeavour 
to  convert  a  heterodox  work  into  an  orthodox  one  is  furnished 
by  the  treatment  accorded  to  Hafiz  by  the  Mohammedan  the- 
ologians, who  first  bitterly  opposed  the  celebrated  poems  but 
finding  this  opposition  useless,  adopted  and  interpreted  them  as 
symbolical  expositions  of  the  teachings  of  Islam.  See  Payne's 
Introduction  to  his  translation  of  The  Poems  of  Hafiz  (London, 
1901),  pp.  xxii.  seg. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death      377 

their  view  of  life, — not  indeed  in  leading  them  to  take 
a  pessimistic  attitude  towards  life,  or  in  regarding 
this  world  as  a  vale  of  tears,  but  in  limiting  their 
ethical  ideals  to  what  was  essential  to  their  material 
well-being  and  mundane  happiness. 


It  would  be  an  error,  however,  to  infer  that  such  a 
view  of  life  is  incompatible  with  relatively  high 
standards  of  conduct.  That  is  far  from  being  the 
case — at  least  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria.  Even 
though  the  highest  purpose  in  life  was  to  secure  as 
much  joy  and  happiness  as  possible,  the  conviction 
was  deeply  ingrained,  particularly  in  the  minds  of 
the  Babylonians,  that  the  gods  demanded  adher- 
ence to  moral  standards.  We  have  had  illustrations 
of  these  standards  in  the  incantation  texts,  ^  where  by 
the  side  of  ritualistic  errors  we  find  the  priests  sug- 
gesting the  possibility  that  misfortune  has  been  sent 
in  consequence  of  moral  transgressions — such  as 
lying,  stealing,  defrauding,  maliciousness,  adultery, 
coveting  the  possessions  of  others,  unworthy  ambi- 
tions, injurious  teachings,  and  other  misdemeanours. 
The  gods  were  prone  to  punish  misdoings  quite  as 
severely  as  neglect  of  their  worship,  or  indifference  to 
the  niceties  of  ritualistic  observances. 

*  See  above,  p.  307  seq. 


37^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

The  consciousness  of  sinful  inclinations  and  of 
guilt,  though  only  brought  home  to  men  when  misfor- 
tunes came  or  were  impending,  was  strong  enough  to 
create  rules  of  conduct  in  public  and  private  affairs 
that  rested  on  sound  principles.  The  rights  of  in- 
dividuals were  safeguarded  by  laws  that  strove  to 
prevent  the  strong  from  taking  undue  advantage  of 
the  weak.  Business  was  carried  on  under  the  pro- 
tection of  laws  and  regulations  that  impress  one 
as  remarkably  equitable.  Underhand  practices  were 
severely  punished,  and  contracts  had  to  be  faith- 
fully executed.  All  this,  it  may  be  suggested,  was 
dictated  by  the  necessities  of  the  growth  of  a  com- 
plicated social  organisation.  True,  but  what  is  notice- 
able in  the  thousands  of  business  documents  now  at 
our  behoof  and  covering  almost  all  periods  from  the 
earliest  to  the  latest,  is  the  spirit  of  justice  and 
equity  that  pervades  the  endeavour  to  regulate  the 
social  relations  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria.^  This  is 
particularly  apparent  in  the  legal  decisions  handed 
down  by   the    judges,    of    which    we    have    many 

^  For  an  excellent  summary  account  with  numerous  illustra- 
tions of  actual  cases  of  all  kinds,  see  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  Baby- 
lonian and  Assyrian  Laws,  Contracts,  and  Letters  (N.  Y.,  1904), 
and  the  work  of  Kohler-Peiser  and  Ungnad  above  quoted,  p.  277, 
note  I,  also  Peiser,  Texte  Juristischen  und  Geschdftlichen  Inhalts 
(Schrader,  Keilinschriftliche  Bibliothek,  vol.  iv.),  and  the  same 
author's,  "  Skizze  der  Babylonischen  Gesellschaft  "  {Mitteilungen 
der  Vorderasiatischen  Gesellschaft,  i.,  No.  3). 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       379 

specimens.^  As  a  protection  to  both  parties  en- 
gaging in  business  transactions,  a  formal  contract 
wherein  the  details  were  noted  was  drawn  up,  and 
sealed  in  the  presence  of  witnesses.  This  method 
was  extended  from  loans  and  sales  to  marriage  agree- 
ments, to  testaments,  to  contracts  for  work,  to  rents, 
and  even  to  such  incidents  as  engaging  teachers,  and 
to  apprenticeship.  The  general  principle,  already- 
implied  in  the  Hammurapi  Code,  and  apparently  in 
force  at  all  periods,  was  that  no  agreement  of  any  kind 
was  valid  without  a  duly  attested  written  record. 
The  religious  element  enters  into  these  business  trans- 
actions in  the  oath  taken  in  the  name  of  the  gods,  with 
the  frequent  addition  of  the  name  of  the  reigning  king 
by  both  parties  as  a  guarantee  of  good  faith.  In 
some  cases  the  oath  is,  in  fact,  prescribed  by  law. 

If  a  dispute  arose  in  regard  to  the  terms  of  a  con- 
tract, and  no  agreement  could  be  reached  by  the  con- 
tracting parties,  the  case  was  brought  before  the 
court,  which  appears  to  have  been  ordinarily  com- 
posed of  three  judges,  as  among  the  Jews  (whose 
method  of  legal  procedure  was  largely  modelled 
upon  Babylonian  prototypes).  All  the  documents 
in  the  case  had  to  be  brought  into  court,  and  each 
party  was  obliged  to  bring  witnesses  to  support  any 
claims    lying    outside    the  record.     The   impression 

^  See  Johns,  I.e.,  pp.  100-115,  and  Harper,  Assyrian  and  Baby- 
lonian Literature,  pp.  276  seq.,  for  examples. 


38o  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

that  one  receives  from  a  study  of  these  decisions 
is  that  they  were  rendered  after  a  careful  and  im- 
partial consideration  of  the  documents,  and  of  the 
statements  of  the  parties  and  of  previous  decisions. 
An  example  taken  from  the  neo-Baby Ionian  period^ 
will  illustrate  the  spirit  by  which  the  judges  were 
actuated  in  deciding  the  complicated  cases  that 
were  frequently  brought  before  them.  It  is  the 
case  of  a  widow  Bunanit,  who  brings  suit  to  recover 
property,  devised  to  her  by  her  husband,  which  has 
been  claimed  by  her  brother-in-law.  Her  case  is 
stated  in  detail: 

Bunanit,  the  daughter  of  Kharisi,  declared  before  the  judges  of 
Nabonnedos,  king  of  Babylon,  as  follows:  " Apil-addunadin, 
son  of  Nikbadu,"  took  me  to  wife,  receiving  three  and  a  half 
manas  of  silver  as  my  dowry,  and  one  daughter  I  bore  him.  I 
and  Apil-addunadin,  my  husband,  carried  on  business ^  with  the 
money  of  my  dowry,  and  bought  eight  GI^  of  an  estate  in  the 
Akhula-galla  quarter  of  Borsippa,-*  for  nine  and  two  thirds 
manas  of  silver,  s  besides  two  and  a  half  manas  of  silver  which 
was  a  loan  from  Iddin-lMarduk,  son  of  Ikischa-aplu,  son  of  Nur- 
Sin,  which  we  added  to  the  price  of  said  estate  and  bought  it  in 
common.  ^ 

^  Strassmaier,  Babylonische  Texte,  Inschriften  von  Nahonidus, 
Konig  von  Babylon,  No.  356.  See  Peiser,  Texte  Juristischen  und 
Geschdftlichen  Inhalts,  pp.  234-237. 

'  Literally  "sale  and  puchase." 

3  A  land  measure. 

*  Opposite  Babylon. 

s  Through  business  transactions  the  capital  of  the  pair  had  in- 
creased to  this  amount. 

^  I.e.,  the  total  price  was  12^  manas  of  which  2^  represents 
borrowed  capital. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       381 

"In  the  fourth  year  of  Nabonnedos,  king  of  Bab34on,  I  put  in  a 
claim  for  my  dowry  against  my  husband  Apil-addunadin,  and 
of  his  own  accord  he  sealed  over  to  me  the  eight  GI  of  said 
estate  in  Borsippa  and  transferred  it  to  me  for  all  time,^  and  de- 
clared on  my  tablet ^  as  follows:  '2^  manas  of  silver  which 
Apil-addunadin  and  Bunanit  borrowed  from  Iddin-Marduk  and 
turned  over  to  the  price  of  said  estate  they  held  in  common.  ^ 
That  tablet  he  sealed  and  wrote  the  curse  of  the  gods  on  it.  4 

"In  the  fifth  year  of  Nabonnedos,  king  of  Babylon,  I  and  my 
husband  Apil-addun.adin  adopted  Apil-adduamara  as  son,  s  and 
made  out  the  deed  of  adoption,^  stipulating  two  manas  and 
ten  shekels  of  silver  and  a  house-outfit  as  the  dowry  of  Nubta, 
my  daughter.  My  husband  died,  and  now  Akabi-ilu,  son  of  my 
father-in-law,  7  has  put  in  a  claim  for  said  estate  and  all  that 
has  been  sealed  and  transferred  to  me,  including  Nebo-n<ir-ili 
whom  we  obtained^  from  Nebo-akh-iddin.  Before  you  I 
bring  the  matter.     Render  a  decision." 

The  case  has  been  stated  with  great  clearness. 
The  legal  point  involved,  because  of  which  the  brother- 
in-law  puts  in  a  claim  on  behalf  of  the  deceased  hus- 

*  I.e.,  in  consideration  that  it  was  the  wife's  dowry  that  had 
increased  to  the  value  of  9I  manas,  the  husband  gave  her  the 
estate. 

2  I.e.,  on  the  formal  document  of  transfer. 

3  The  wife  thus  admits  her  responsibility  for  at  least  one 
half  of  the  debt. 

"^  I.e.,  invoked  at  the  close  the  curse  of  the  gods  on  any  one 
who  altered  the  tablet  or  put  in  a  false  claim — as  was  invariably 
done  in  the  case  of  boundary  stones,  and  frequently  in  other  legal 
documents.     See  Johns,  I.e.,  pp.  93  seq,  and  below,  p.  385. 

5  There  being  no  male  heir,  a  portion  of  the  estate  at  least 
would  pass  to  the  husband's  family.  To  avoid  that  contingency 
the  pair  adopted  a  son. 

^  For  such  formal  deeds,  see  Johns,  I.e.,  pp.  154-160, 

''I.e.,  her  brother-in-law  who  appears  as  the  representative  of 
the  husband's  family  claiming  the  estate. 

^  I.e.,  as  a  slave. 


382  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

band's  family,  turns  on  the  question  whether  the  wife 
is  entitled  to  the  entire  estate,  seeing  that  her  original 
dowry  was  only  three  and  one  half  manas,  or,  in  other 
words,  whether  the  husband  had  a  right  to  turn  over 
to  her  the  whole  property  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
her  dowry  which,  through  business  transactions  con- 
ducted in  common,  had  increased  to  nine  and  two 
thirds  manas.  Bunanit,  in  stating  her  case,  lays 
great  stress,  it  will  be  observed,  on  the  circumstance 
that  she  and  her  husband  did  all  things  in  common 
— bartered  in  common,  bought  in  common,  borrowed 
in  common,  adopted  a  son  in  common,  and  acquired 
a  slave  in  common. 

The  decision  rendered  by  the  judges  is  remark- 
ably just,  manifesting  a  due  regard  for  the  ethics  of 
the  situation,  and  based  on  an  examination  of  the 
various  documents  or  tablets  in  the  case  and  which  in 
such  an  instance  had  to  be  produced.  The  document 
continues  as  follows: 

The  judges  heard  their  complaints,^  and  read  the  tablets  and 
contracts  which  Bunanit  ^  had  laid  before  them.     To  Akabi- 

'  It  is  assumed  that  Akabi-ilu  has  also  stated  his  case. 

=  Akabi-ilu  of  course  had  no  documents.  Among  the  docu- 
ments which  Bunanit  produced  there  must  have  been  included 
(i)  the  marriage  contract,  (2)  documents  of  the  business  transac- 
tions, (3)  the  purchase  of  the  estate,  (4)  the  loan  of  Iddin-Mar- 
duk,  (5)  the  transfer  of  the  estate  to  her,  (6)  the  document  of 
adoption,  (7)  the  document  of  the  daughter's  dowry,  (8)  the 
purchase  of  a  slave  in  common.  Some  of  these  are  actually  in 
existence. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       383 

ilu  they  grant  nothing  of  the  estate  in  Borsippa,  which  in  lieu  of 
her  dowry  had  been  transferred  to  Bunanit,  nor  Nebo-n(^r-ili, 
whom  she  and  her  husband  had  bought,  nor  any  of  the  property 
of  Apil-addunadin.  They  confirmed  the  documents  of  Bunanit 
and  Apil-adduamara.  The  sum  of  two  and  one  half  manas  of 
silver  is  to  be  returned  forthwith  to  Iddin-Marduk  who  had  ad- 
vanced it  for  the  sale  of  the  house.  Then  Bunanit  is  to  receive 
three  and  one  half  manas  of  silver — her  dowry — and  a  share  of 
the  estate.  Nebo-ntir-iH  is  given  to  Nubta  in  accordance  with 
the  agreement  of  her  father.  ^ 

The  names  of  the  six  judges  through  whom  the  said 
decision  was  rendered  are  then  given,  followed  by  the 
names  of  two  scribes  and  the  date 

Babylon,  26th  of  Ulul  (6th  month),  9th  year  of  Nabonnedos,  king 
of  Babylon.  =» 

The  balance  of  the  estate  evidently  passed  over 
to  the  adopted  son.  Bunanit  won  her  case  against 
her  brother-in-law,  but  it  looks  on  the  surface  as 
though  she  had  not  won  all  that  she  had  claimed. 
The  judges  practically  ignored  the  transfer  of  the 
entire  estate  to  her,  for  they  granted  her  merely  her 
dowry  and  the  share  of  her  husband's  property  to 
which  as  widow  she  was  entitled.  Had  there  not 
been  an  adopted  son,  the  claim  of  Akabi-ilu  would 
probably  have  been  upheld  for  the  balance  of  the 
estate,  exclusive  of  the  slave.  Bunanit  is  obliged  to 
confess  that  her  husband  transferred  the  property 

^  Evidently  one  of  the  documents  before  the  court  revealed 
this  stipulation  of  the  deceased  Apil-addunadin. 
^Corresponding  to  546  b.  c. 


384  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

"of  his  own  accord,"  which  means  that  it  was  not 
upon  an  order  of  the  court,  and  therefore  not  legally 
established.  It  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  court  would 
not  have  regarded  such  a  transaction  as  legal,  for 
despite  the  fact  that  the  pair  do  not  adopt  a  son  until 
after  the  transfer,  the  judges  allowed  the  widow  her 
dowry  only  and  her  share  of  the  estate.  On  the 
other  hand,  though  it  might  appear  that,  as  a  partner, 
Bunanit  would  only  have  been  responsible  for  one 
half  of  the  amount  borrowed  from  Iddin-Marduk,  the 
judges,  by  ignoring  the  transfer,  could  order  that 
Iddin-Marduk  must  be  paid  in  full  out  of  the  property 
left  by  Apil-addunadin. 

VI 

The  kings  themselves,  although  not  actuated,  per- 
haps, by  the  highest  motives,  set  the  example  of 
obedience  to  laws  that  involved  the  recognition  of 
the  rights  of  others.  From  a  most  ancient  period 
there  is  come  down  to  us  a  remarkable  monument 
recording  the  conveyance  of  large  tracts  of  land  in 
northern  Babylonia  to  a  king  of  Kish,  Manishtusu,^ 
{ca.  2700  B.C.),  on  which  hundreds  of  names  are  re- 
corded from  whom  the  land  was  purchased,  with 
specific  descriptions  of  the  tracts  belonging  to  each 
one,  as  well  as  the  conditions  of  sale.     The  king  here 

'  See  on  this  ruler,  King,  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  pp. 
206  seq. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       385 

appears  with  rights  no  more  exclusive  or  predomin- 
ant than  those  of  a  private  citizen.  Not  only  does 
he  give  full  compensation  to  each  owner,  but  un- 
dertakes to  find  occupation  and  means  of  support 
for  fifteen  hundred  and  sixty-four  labourers  and 
eighty- seven  overseers,  who  had  been  affected  by  the 
transfer. 

The  numerous  boundary  stones  that  are  come  down 
to  us  (recording  sales  of  fields  or  granting  privileges) , 
which  were  set  up  as  memorials  of  transactions,  are 
silent  but  eloquent  witnesses  to  the  respect  for  pri- 
vate property.  The  inscriptions  on  these  stones  con- 
clude with  dire  curses  in  the  names  of  the  gods  against 
those  who  should  set  up  false  claims,  or  who  should 
alter  the  wording  of  the  agreement,  or  in  any  way  in- 
terfere with  the  terms  thereon  recorded.  The  sym- 
bols of  the  gods^  were  engraved  on  these  boundary 
stones  as  a  precaution  and  a  protection  to  those  whose 
rights  and  privileges  the  stone  recorded.  The 
Babylonians  could  well  re-echo  the  denunciations 
of  the  Hebrew  prophets  against  those  who  removed 
the  boundaries  of  their  neighbours'  fields.  Even 
those  Assyrian  monarchs  most  given  to  conquest 
and    plunder    boast,    in    their    annals,    of    having 

'  On  these  symbols,  see  Hinke,  A  New  Boundary  Stone  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar I.,  pp.  71-115,  whose  work  is  also  to  be  recommended 
as  the  best  general  treatise  on  the  Kudurru  (or  boundary  stone) 
monuments  and  inscriptions.     See  the  illustrations  on  Plate  22. 


386  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

restored  property  to  the  rightful  owners,  and  of  hav- 
ing respected  the  privileges  of  their  subjects  and  de- 
pendents. For  instance,  Sargon  of  Assyria  (721-705 
B.c.)>  while  parading  his  conquests  in  vain- glorious 
terms,  and  proclaiming  his  unrivalled  prowess,  em- 
phasises^ the  fact  that  he  maintained  the  privileges 
of  the  great  centres  of  the  south,  Sippar,  Nipptir, 
and  Babylon,  and  that  he  protected  the  weak  and 
righted  their  injuries.  His  successor  Sennacherib^ 
claims  to  be  the  guardian  of  justice  and  a  lover  of 
righteousness.  Yet,  these  are  the  very  same  mon- 
archs  who  treated  their  enemies  with  unspeakable 
cruelty,  inflicting  tortures  on  prisoners,  violating 
women,  mutilating  corpses,  burning  and  pillaging 
towns. 

More  significant  still  is  the  attitude  of  a  monarch 
like  Hammurapi,  who,  in  the  prologue  and  epilogue 
to  his  famous  Code,  refers  to  himself  as  a  "king  of 
righteousness,"  actuated  by  a  lofty  desire  to  protect 
the  weak,  the  widow,  and  the  orphan.  In  setting  up 
copies  of  this  Code  in  the  important  centres  of  his 
realm,  his  hope  is  that  all  may  realise  that  he,  Ham- 
murapi, tried  to  be  a  "father  "  to  his  people.  He  calls 
upon  all  who  have  a  just  cause  to  bring  it  before  the 
courts,  and  gives  them  the  assurance  that  justice  will 

^  Rawlinson,  I.,  Plate  36,  4  (Schrader,  Keilinschriftliche  Bihlio- 
thek,  ii.,  p.  41.     See  also  p.  77). 

'  Rawlinson,  I.,  Plate  37,  col.  i.,  4  (Schrader  I.e.,  p.  83), 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death      387 

be  dispensed, — all  this  as  early  as  nigh  four  thousand 
years  ago! 

On  a  tablet^  commemorative  of  the  privileges  ac- 
corded to  Sippar,  Nippur,  and  Babylon — to  which, 
we  have  just  seen,  Sargon  refers  in  his  annals — there 
are  grouped  together,  in  the  introduction,  a  series  of 
warnings,  which  may  be  taken  as  general  illustrations 
of  the  principles  by  which  rulers  were  supposed  to  be 
guided : 

If  the  king  does  not  heed  the  law,  his  people  will  be  destroyed; 
his  power  will  pass  away. 

If  he  does  not  heed  the  law  of  his  land,  Ea,  the  king  of  destinies, 
will  judge  his  fate  and  cast  him  to  one  side. 

If  he  does  not  heed  his  abkallu,  ^  his  days  will  be  shortened. 

If  he  does  not  heed  the  priestess  [?],  his  land  will  rebel  against 
him. 

If  he  gives  heed  to  the  wicked,  confusion  will  set  in. 

If  he  gives  heed  to  the  counsels  of  Ea,  the  great  gods  will  aid 
him  in  righteous  decrees  and  decisions. 

If  he  oppresses  a  man  of  Sippar  and  perverts  justice,  Shamash, 
the  judge  of  heaven  and  earth,  will  annul  the  law  in  his  land,  so 
that  there  will  be  neither  abkallu  nor  judge  to  render  justice. 

If  the  Nippurians  are  brought  before  him  for  judgment,  and 
he  oppresses  them  with  a  heavy  hand,  Enlil,  the  lord  of  lands, 
will  cause  him  to  be  dispatched  by  a  foe  and  his  army  to  be  over- 
thrown; chief  and  general  will  be  humiliated  and  driven  off. 

If  he  causes  the  treasury  of  the  Babylonians  to  be  entered  for 
looting,  if  he  annuls  and  reverses  the  suits  of  the  Babylonians, 
then  Marduk,  the  lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  will  bring  his  enemy 
against  him,  and  will  turn  over  to  his  enemy  his  property  and 
possessions. 

^  Cuneiform  Texts,  etc.,  Part  XV.,  Plate  50. 
'  A  high  priestly  dignitary  who  communicates  the  will  of  the 
gods  to  the  people. 


388  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

If  he  unjustly  orders  a  man  of  Nippur,  Sippar,  or  Babylon  to  be 
cast  into  prison,  the  city  where  the  injustice  has  been  done,  will 
be  made  desolate,  and  a  strong  enemy  will  invade  the  prison  into 
which  he  has  been  cast. 


In  this  strain  the  text  proceeds ;  and  while  the  refer- 
ence is  limited  to  the  three  cities,  the  obligations  im- 
posed upon  the  rulers  to  respect  privileges  once 
granted  may  be  taken  as  a  general  indication  of 
the  standards  everywhere  prevailing.  We  must  not 
fail,  however,  to  recognise  the  limitation  of  the  ethi- 
cal spirit,  manifest  in  the  threatened  punishments, 
should  the  ruler  fail  to  act  according  to  the  dictates  of 
justice  and  right.  For  all  this,  whether  it  was  from 
fear  of  punishment,  or  desire  to  secure  the  favour  of 
the  gods,  the  example  of  their  rulers  in  following  the 
paths  of  equity  and  in  avoiding  tyranny  and  op- 
pression must  have  reacted  on  their  subjects,  and 
incited  them  to  conform  their  lives  to  equally  high 
standards. 

There  is  extant  a  text — unfortunately  preserved 
only  in  part — which,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of 
the  Biblical  "Book  of  Proverbs,"  lays  down  certain 
moral  precepts  that  were  intended  to  be  of  general  ap- 
plication. That  it  is  a  fragment,  and  an  Assyrian 
copy  of  an  older  text,  suggests  an  inference  that  there 
may  have  been  similar  and  even  more  extensive  col- 
lections; and,  perhaps,  some  fortunate  chance  will 
bring  to  light  more  texts  among   the  archives  of 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death      389 

Babylonian  temples,  from  which  the  texts  of  Ashur- 
banapal's  library  were  for  the  most  part  copied.^ 
The  fragment,  which  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  example 
of  the  ethical  teachings  prescribed  by  the  priests, 
reads  as  follows:^ 

Thou  shalt  not  slander — speak  what  is  pure! 

Thou  shalt  not  speak  evil — speak  kindly ! 

He  who  slanders  (and)  speaks  evil, 

Shamash3  will  visit  recompense  on  his  head. 

Let  not  thy  mouth  boast — guard  thy  lip ! 

When  thou  art  angry,  do  not  speak  at  once! 

If  thou  speakest  in  anger,  thou  wilt  repent  afterwards, 

And  in  silence  sadden  thy  mind. 

Daily  approach  thy  god, 

With  offering  and  prayer  as  an  excellent  incense ! 

Before  thy  god  (come)  with  a  pure  heart, 

For  that  is  proper  towards  the  deity ! 

Prayer,  petition,  and  prostration, 

Early  in  the  morning  shalt  thou  render  him; 

And  with  god's  help,  thou  wilt  prosper. 

In  thy  wisdom  learn  from  the  tablet.  4 

The  fear  (of  god)  begets  favour. 

Offering  enriches  life. 

And  prayer  brings  forgiveness  of  sin. 

He  who  fears  the  gods,  will  not  cry  [in  vain(?)]. 

He  who  fears  the  Anunnaki,5  will  lengthen  [his  days]. 

With  friend  and  companion  thou  shalt  not  speak  [evil  (?)]. 

^  See  above,  pp.  48  and  96. 

'PubHshed  by  K.  D.  Macmillan,  "Some  Cuneiform  Tablets 
Bearing  on  the  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  No.  II.,  in 
Beitrdge  zur  Assyriologie,  vol.  v.,  pp.  557-562.  See  also  Cunei- 
form Texts,  etc.  Part  XII.,  Plates  29,  30. 

3  The  god  of  justice. 

4  We  would  say  "learn  from  your  books." 

s  The  collective  name  for  a  lower  order  of  gods. 


390  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Thou  shalt  not  say  low  things,  but  (speak)  kindness. 
If  thou  promisest,  give  [what  thou  hast  promised  (?)]. 


Thou  shalt  not  in  tyranny  oppress  them, 

For  this  his  god  will  be  angry  with  him; 

It  is  not  pleasing  to  Shamash — he  will  requite  him  with  evil. 

Give  food  to  eat,  wine  to  drink. 

Seek  what  is  right,  avoid  [what  is  wrong  (?)]. 

For  this  is  pleasing  to  his  god; 

It  is  pleasing  to  Shamash — he  will  requite  him  [with  mercy]. 

Be  helpful,  be  kind  [to  the  servant(?)]. 

The  maid  in  the  house  thou  shalt  [protect  (?)]. 

Brief  as  the  fragment  is,  it  covers  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  relations  of  social  life.  The  advice  given 
is  largely  practical,  and  the  reward  offered  is  ever  of 
this  world — long  Hfe,  happiness,  freedom  from  mis- 
fortune— while  errors,  be  they  moral  or  ritualistic, 
bring  their  ow^n  punishment  with  them.  The  ethics 
taught  is  not  of  a  kind  to  carry  us  upward  into  higher 
regions,  and  the  nearest  approach  to  a  nobler  touch 
is  in  the  inculcation  of  the  proper  attitude  toward 
the  gods,  and  of  kindness  and  mercy  toward  fellow- 
men;  but  in  spite  of  these  obvious  limitations,  the 
ethical  standards  in  the  precepts  show  that  it  was 
considered,  at  least,  the  part  of  wisdom  to  maintain 
a  clean  morality.  Worldly  wisdom  takes  the  pre- 
cedence throughout  in  popular  maxims  and  say- 
ings, and  it  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  we 
must  consider  such  a  text  as  the  present  one.  Whole- 
some teachings,  even  where  the  motives  enjoined  are 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       391 

not  of  the  highest,  may  yet  point  to  sound  moral 
foundations  and  indicate  that  the  ethical  sense  has 
had  its  awakening.  A  nobler  height  may  be  gained  in 
course  of  time. 

VII 

The  spirit  of  Hammurapi's  Code  further  illustrates 
the  ethical  standards  imposed  alike  upon  rulers, 
priests,  and  people.  The  business  and  legal  docu- 
ments of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  show  that  the  laws, 
codified  by  the  king,  and  representing  the  summary 
of  legal  procedures  and  legal  decisions  down  to  his 
day,  were  not  only  enforced  but  interpreted  to  the 
very  letter.  To  be  sure,  the  Code  embodies  side  by 
side  enactments  of  older  and  later  dates.  It  con- 
tains examples  of  punishment  by  ordeal,  as,  e.g.,  in 
the  case  of  a  culprit  accused  of  witchcraft,  ^  where  the 
decision  is  relegated  to  the  god  of  the  stream  into 
which  the  defendant  is  cast.  If  the  god  of  the 
stream  takes  him  unto  himself,  his  guilt  is  estab- 
lished. If  the  god  by  saving  him  declares  his 
innocence,  the  plaintiff  is  put  to  death  and  his  pro- 
perty forfeited  for  the  benefit  of  the  defendant, 
wrongfully  accused.  The  lex  talionis — providing  "eye 
for  eye,  bone  for  bone,  and  tooth  for  tooth" — also 
finds  a  place  in  the  Code ;  ^  but  in  both  the  ordeal  and 
in  the  lex  talionis,  it  does  not  differ  from  the  Penta- 

'  §§  1,2.  =«§§  196-200. 


392   Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

teuchal  Codes,  which,  likewise  compilations  of  earlier 
and  later  decrees,  prescribe  the  ordeal'  in  the  case 
for  instance  of  the  woman  accused  of  adultery;  and  if 
it  be  maintained  that  the  principle  of  "eye  for  eye 
and  tooth  for  tooth"  is  set  up  in  the  Old  Testament^ 
merely  as  a  basis  for  a  compensation  equal  to  the  in- 
jury done,  the  same  might  hold  good  for  the  Ham- 
murapi  Code  and  with  even  greater  justification, 
since  the  Code  actually  limits  the  lex  talionis  to  the 
case  of  an  injury  done  to  one  of  equal  rank,  while  in 
the  case  of  one  of  inferior  or  superior  rank,  a  fine  is 
imposed,  which  suggests  that  the  lex  talionis  as  ap- 
plied to  one  of  equal  rank  has  become  merely  a  legal 
phrase  to  indicate  that  a  return,  equal  to  the  value  of 
an  eye  or  a  tooth  to  him  who  suffers  the  assault, 
is  to  be  imposed.  This,  of  course,  is  a  mere  sup- 
position, but  at  all  events  the  underlying  principle 
is  one  of  equal  compensation,  and  in  so  far  it  is  ethical 
in  its  natiu-e.  On  the  other  hand,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  original  import  of  the  lex  talionis, 
among  both  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  (as  among 
the  Hebrews),  involved  a  literal  interpretation,  as 
may  be  concluded  from  the  particularly  harsh  and  in- 
consequent application  to  the  case  of  the  son  of  a 
builder,  who  is  to  be  put  to  death  should  an  edifice, 

'  Numbers  v.,  11-28. 

'  Ex.  xi.,  24  (Book  of  the  Covenant);  Dcut.  xix.,  21  (Deuterono- 
mic  Code);  Lev.  xxiv.,  20  (Code  of  Holiness). 


PI.  34.     Code  of  Hammurapi,  King  of  Babylonia  (c.  1958-1916  B.C.). 

Found  in  1901  at  Susa,  whither  it  was  carried  as  a  trophy  by 
the  Elamites  (see  comment  to  PI.  8  and  22)  in  one  of  their  incur- 
sions into  Babylonia.  Fragments  of  a  second  copy  have  also  been 
found.  The  code  was  originally  set  up  in  the  temple  of  IMarduk 
at  Babylon.  Copies  were  probably  prepared  and  set  up  in  other 
centres.  At  the  top  is  a  design  representing  Hammurapi  in  an 
attitude  of  adoration  before  Shamash,  the  sun-god,  who  as  the  god 
of  justice  and  righteousness  is  the  presiding  genius  of  the  king 
as  law-giver,  and  from  whom  in  their  ultimate  analysis  the  laws 
are  derived. 

The  inscription,  covering  originally  44  columns,  running  around 
the  stone  and  comprising  over  3000  lines,  is  almost  perfectly 
preserved.  Forty-four  columns,  aggregating  2644  lines,  are  intact, 
while  five  columns  (approximately  300  lines)  have  been  inten- 
.  tionally  erased,  presumably  to  receive  an  inscription  of  the  Elam- 
ite  plunderer  who  proposed  to  perpetuate  his  vandalism  by 
inscribing  his  name  and  titles  on  the  polished  portion.  For  some 
reason  he  failed  to  do  so.  Through  fragments  of  latB  Assyrian 
copies  in  Ashurbanapal's  Librar}^  parts  of  the  missing  columns 
can  be  restored.  After  an  invocation  to  the  gods  and  an  enumera- 
tion of  what  he  did  to  beautify  and  enlarge  the  sanctuaries  in 
various  parts  of  his  extensive  realm  and  to  promote  the  well- 
being  of  his  subjects,  Hammurapi  proceeds  to  enumerate  the  laws 
which  may  conveniently  be  divided  into  282  paragraphs.  The 
last  three  columns  are  taken  up  with  a  concluding  statement  on 
the  part  of  the  king  of  his  career,  emphasising  his  purpose  in  pre- 
paring the  Code,  and  closing  with  the  usual  curses  against  any 
one  who  defaces  or  injures  the  monument  or  who  alters  any  of 
its  decrees.  The  stone  is  a  block  of  diorite  nearly  8  ft.  high.  See 
Scheil,  Delegation  en  Perse,  Memoires,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  11-162, 


Code  of  Hammurapi 

King  of  Babylonia 

(c.  1958-1916  B.  C.) 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       393 

erected  by  his  father,  fall  and  kill  the  son  of  the 
owner.  ^ 

Another  unfavourable  feature  of  the  Code,  which 
illustrates  the  limitations  of  ethical  principles,  lies  in 
the  extreme  severity  of  many  of  its  punishments. 
The  penalty  of  death  is  imposed  for  about  fifty  of- 
fences, some  of  them  comparatively  trivial,  such  as 
stealing  temple  or  royal  property,  ^  where,  however,  the 
element  of  sacrilege  enters  into  consideration.  Even 
the  claimant  of  a  property,  alleged  to  have  been  pur- 
chased from  a  man's  son  or  servant,  or  of  a  member 
of  the  higher  class,  who  is  unable  to  show  the  con- 
tract, is  held  to  be  a  thief,  because  of  the  fraudulent 
intent,  and  is  put  to  death.  ^  The  law  is,  however, 
fair  in  its  application,  and  punishes  with  equal  sever- 
ity, when  there  is  a  fraudulent  attempt  to  deprive  one 
of  legally  acquired  property.  He  who  aids  a  run- 
away slave  is  placed  in  the  same  category '^  as  he  who 
steals  a  minor  son,^  or  as  he  who  conspires  to  take 
property  away  from  his  neighbour,  and  is  put  to 
death  for  the  fraudulent  attempt.  A  plunderer  at  a 
fire  is  himself  thrown  into  that  fire,^  and  he  who  has 
broken  into  a  man's  house  is  immured  in  the  breach 
that  he  himself  has  made.'  In  cases  of  assault  and 
battery,  a  distinction  is  drawn  according  to  the  rank 

^  §  230.  If  the  fall  of  the  edifice  kills  the  owner,  then  the 
builder  is  put  to  death  (§  229).     Other  examples  below. 

^§6.        3  §§7,  8.        4§     15.         5§   14.         6  I  25.         7  §21. 


394  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  the  assailant  and  the  assailed.  If  a  person  of 
lower  rank  attacks  a  person  of  higher  rank,  the  pun- 
ishment is  a  public  whipping  of  sixty  lashes  with  a 
leather  thong,  ^  whereas  if  the  one  attacked  is  of  equal 
rank,  the  whipping  is  remitted,  but  a  heavy  fine — 
one  mana  of  silver^ — is  imposed.  If  a  slave  commits 
this  offence,  and  the  victim  is  of  high  rank,  the  slave's 
ear  is  cut  off  ^  At  the  same  time,  an  ethical  spirit  is 
revealed  in  the  stipulation  that,  if  the  injury  be  in- 
flicted in  a  chance-medley,  and  the  blow  not  inten- 
tionally aimed  at  any  particular  person,  the  offender 
is  discharged  with  the  obligation  to  pay  the  doctor's 
bill,"*  or,  in  the  event  of  the  death  of  the  victim,  with  a 
fine  according  to  the  rank  of  the  deceased.  ^  A  lower 
level  of  equity  is,  however,  represented  by  the  en- 
actments that,  in  case  a  man  st-rikes  a  pregnant  woman 
and  the  woman  dies,  a  daughter  of  the  offender  is 
put  to  death,  ^  or  in  case  a  surgical  operation  on  the 
eye  is  not  successful,  and  the  patient  loses  his  eye, 
the  surgeon's  hand  is  to  be  cut  off,^  or  in  the 
event  of  the  death  of  a  slave  under  an  operation, 
the  surgeon  must  reimbtirse  the  owner  by  giving  him 
another  slave.  ^ 

All  such  laws  are  variations  of  the  lex  talionis,  and 
unquestionably  reflect  a  primitive  form  of  social  or- 
ganisation, where  advanced  ethical  principles  are  not 

^  §  202.     '  §  203.     I  mana  =  60  shekels.       3  §  205.       *  §  206. 
5  §207-208.     6  §210.      7  §218.     *§2I9. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       395 

to  be  expected.  They  must  be  regarded  in  the  same 
light  as  many  of  the  enactments  in  the  Pentateuchal 
Codes  and  in  other  collections  of  ancient  laws — 
as  survivals  indeed  of  even  earlier  regulations  which, 
having  been  once  accepted,  were  faithfully  incor- 
porated in  the  compilation  made  by  Hammurapi, 
whereof  the  aim  clearly  was  to  furnish  a  complete 
survey  of  regulations  for  the  execution  of  justice. 

These  crude  statutes,  therefore,  constittite  a  valu- 
able testimony  to  the  process  of  development  which 
led  to  the  higher  conditions  that  characterise  the 
Code  in  general.  This  superior  level  is  reached,  e.g., 
in  the  provision  that  a  judge  who  has  rendered  a 
wrong  decision  is  to  pay  a  fine  twelve-fold  the  amount 
involved  in  the  suit;  and  in  addition,  he  is  to  be  re- 
moved from  the  bench  and  never  again  to  be  permitted 
to  exercise  the  judicial  function.  ^  This  regulation  re- 
cognises a  fundamental  principle  of  justice  that  he  who 
dispenses  it  must  be  beyond  suspicion,  and  must  be 
familiar  also  with  the  law  to  be  administered.  No 
distinction  is  made  between  a  judicial  error  due  to 
ignorance,  and  one  due  to  improper  motives  on  the 
part  of  the  judge.  He  is  not  to  change  his  mind,  and 
it  is  assumed  that  if  he  has  made  an  unintentional 
error,  he  has  shown  himself  to  be  as  unfit  as  though 
the  erroneous  decision  had  been  prompted  by  mali- 
ciousness or  a  wilful  disregard  of  justice. 

^  §  5.     See  above,  p.  276. 


39^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

The  judge  stands  in  the  place  of  deity  according 
to  the  general  view  prevailing  in  antiquity.  If  he 
fail  in  the  proper  discharge  of  his  duties,  he  lowers  the 
dignity  of  his  office;  and  the  deity,  by  permitting 
him  to  go  astray,  shows  that  he  no  longer  desires 
the  judge  to  speak  in  his  name.  Confidence  in  the 
probity  and  ability  of  the  judge  is  the  conditio  sine 
qua  non  of  the  execution  of  justice.  Defective  as 
this  uncompromising  attitude  toward  a  judicial  error 
may  be  from  a  modern  standpoint  in  not  recognising 
an  appeal  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  court,  the  ethical 
basis  is  both  sound  and  of  a  high  order.  With  such  a 
provision,  which  speaks  volumes  for  the  standards  ob- 
taining in  the  days  of  Hammurapi,  the  integrity  of 
the  courts  was  firmly  secured  for  all  time.  Equally 
noteworthy  and  more  modern  in  its  spirit  is  the  pro- 
vision that  a  false  witness,  whose  testimony  jeop- 
ardises the  life  of  another,  shall  be  put  to  death.  ^ 
One  is  reminded  of  the  Venetian  law  quoted  by 
Portia  that  the  life  of  him  who  places  a  citizen  in 
jeopardy  "lies  in  the  merc}^  of  the  Duke  only,  'gainst 
all  other  voice." ^  If  the  false  testimony  involves 
property,  the  false  witness  must  pay  the  amount 
involved  in  the  suit. 

Passing  to  more  specific  subjects,  the  regulation  of 
family  affairs  and  of  commerce  may  be  regarded  as  a 
safe  index  of  the  standards  set  up  for  private  and 

I  §  3.     »  Merchant  oj  Venice,  Act  IV.,  Scene  i,  11.  350-51. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       397 

public  ethics.  No  less  than  sixty-eight^  of  the  two 
hundred  and  seventy-two  paragraphs  or  sections  into 
which  the  Code  may  be  divided,  or  just  one  fovirth, 
deal  on  the  one  hand  with  the  relation  of  husband  and 
wife,  and  on  the  other  of  parents  and  children.  This 
proportion  is  in  itself  a  valuable  indication  of  the 
importance  in  the  social  organisation  attached  to  the 
family.  The  general  aim  of  the  laws  may  be  sum- 
med up  in  the  statement  that  they  are  to  ensure 
the  purity  of  family  life.  The  law  is  severe  against 
the  faithless  wife — mercilessly  severe,  condemning  her 
and  the  adulterer  to  death  by  drowning,^  but  it  also 
protects  her  against  false  accusations.  He  who  un- 
justly points  the  finger  of  suspicion  against  a  woman — 
be  she  a  wife,  or  a  virgin  who  has  taken  a  vow  of 
chastity — is  to  be  publicly  humiHated  by  having  his 
forehead  branded.^  Even  the  husband  must  sub- 
stantiate the  charge  against  his  wife,  and  the  wife  can 
free  herself  from  suspicion  by  an  oath,"*  though,  if 
the  actual  charge  is  brought  by  another  than  her 
husband,  she  must  submit,  at  the  husband's  instance, 
to  the  same  ordeal  of  the  river  god^  as  the  one  accused 
of  witchcraft.  But  even  if  the  charge  be  substan- 
tiated, the  husband  may  exercise  the  right  of  posses- 
sion and  allow  his  wife  to  live ;  and  the  king  also  may 
grant  mercy  to  the  male  offender.^ 

As  a  protection  to  the  wife,  a  formal  marriage  con- 
»§§  127-194.     '§129.     3§  127.     4  §131.    5  §132.    6  §129, 


39^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

tract  must  be  drawn  up,  as  is  not  infrequent  in  our 
days.  A  marriage  without  a  contract  is  void/  A 
woman  betrothed  to  a  man  is  regarded  as  his  wife, 
and  in  case  she  is  disgraced  by  another,  the  offender 
is  put  to  death  ;^  from  which  we  may  perhaps  be  per- 
mitted to  conclude  that  if  she  be  not  betrothed,  the 
offender  is  obHged  to  marry  her.  The  Code  still 
recognises  the  wife  as  an  actual  possession  of  her  hus- 
band, but,  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  fails  to  provide  for 
her  support,  she  may  leave  him.  A  fine  distinction 
is  made  between  actual  desertion  or  enforced  absence 
on  the  part  of  the  husband.  In  the  former  case,^ 
the  woman  has  the  right  to  marry  another,  and  her 
husband  on  his  return  not  only  cannot  force  her  to 
return  to  him,  but  she  is  not  permitted  to  do  so. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  her  husband  is  taken  prisoner 
and  no  provision  has  been  made  for  her  sustenance, 
she  may  marry  another,  but  on  her  husband's  re- 
turn he  may  claim  her,  though  the  children  born  in 
the  interim  belong  to  the  actual  father. "• 

Inasmuch  as  the  wife  forms  part  of  her  husband's 
chattels,  divorce  lies,  of  course,  at  the  option  of  the 
husband,  but  he  cannot  sell  his  wife,  and,  if  he  dis- 
misses her,  she  is  to  receive  again  her  marriage  por- 
tion. Alimony  was  allowed  for  her  own  needs  and 
those  of  her  children,  whose  rearing  was  committed 
to  her.  5     When  the  children  reach  their  majority,  a 

»  §   128.      '  §   130.      3  §   136.      4  §  135.      s  §  137. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       399 

portion  of  their  inheritance  must  be  given  to  the 
mother.  Even  in  the  case  of  a  wife  who  has  not 
borne  her  husband  any  children,  he  may  not  dismiss 
her  without  giving  her  aHmony  and  returning  her 
dowry, '  but  if  she  has  neglected  her  husband's  house- 
hold, and  as  the  law  expresses  it,  has  committed 
"indiscretions,"  he  may  send  her  away  without  any 
compensation  or  may  even  keep  her  as  a  slave,  while 
he  is  free  to  marry  another  woman  as  his  chief  wife.^ 
The  dawning  at  least  of  the  wife's  liberty  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  provision  that,  if  a  woman  desires  to  be  rid 
of  her  husband,  and  provided  on  examination  it  is 
shown  that  she  has  good  cause — the  legal  language 
implies  a  neglect  of  marital  duties  on  the  husband's 
part, — she  may  return  to  her  father's  house,  and  be 
entitled  to  her  marriage  portion.  ^ 

The  prevailing  custom  in  Babylonia  at  the  time 
of  Hammurapi  was  monogamy,  but  it  was  still  per- 
missible, as  a  survival  of  former  conditions,  for  a 
man  to  take  a  concubine,  or  the  wife  could  give  her 
husband  a  handmaid  "* — as  Sarah  gave  Hagar  to 
Abraham  (Genesis  xvi.,  i,  2),  in  order  that  he  might 
have  children  by  her.  The  Code  endeavoiirs,  while 
recognising  conditions  that  are  far  from  ideal,  so 
to  regulate  these  conditions  as  to  afford  protection 
to  the  legitimate  wife.  It  is  provided  that,  in  case 
the  maid-servant   has   borne  children,  the  husband 

^§  138.     ="§  141.    '§142.    "§  144. 


400  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

may  not  take  an  additional  concubine.^  It  would, 
furthermore,  appear  that  a  second  wife  may  be  taken 
into  the  home  only  in  the  event  that  the  marriage 
with  the  first  spouse  is  without  issue.  ^  Even  then, 
the  first  wife  is  protected  by  the  express  stipulation 
that  she  shall  retain  her  place  at  the  head  of  her  hus- 
band's household.  The  manifest  purpose  of  such 
regulations  is  to  pave  the  way  for  passing  beyond 
former  crude  conditions,  such  for  example  as  are 
described  in  Genesis  as  existing  in  Hebrew  society 
in  the  days  of  the  patriarchs.  Old  laws  are  rarely 
abrogated — they  are  generally  so  modified  as  to  lose 
their  original  force.  Perhaps  the  most  significant  of 
these  marriage-laws  is  the  stipulation  that  the  woman 
who  is  smitten  with  an  incurable  disease — the  term 
used  may  have  reference  to  leprosy — must  be  taken 
care  of  by  her  husband  as  long  as  she  lives.  In  no 
circumstances,  it  is  added,  can  he  divorce  her,  and  if 
she  prefer  to  return  to  her  father's  home,  he  must 
give  her  dowry  to  her.  ^ 

Legal  rights  are  assured  to  a  woman  even  after 
her  husband's  death.  Her  children  have  no  claim  on 
property  given  to  her  by  her  husband.  She  may  dis- 
pose of  such  property  to  a  favourite  child  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  she  is  restrained  from  passing  it  on  to  her 
brother,  which  would  take  it  out  of  her  husband's 
clan.-^     Finally,  there  is  a  touch  almost  modem  in 

^  §  144.     ^  §  145.     3  §§  148,  149.     4  §  150. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death      401 

the  law  that  a  wife  cannot  contract  obligations  in  her 
husband's  name,  nor  can  he  be  held  responsible  for 
debts  thus  contracted.^  The  interesting  feature  of 
the  provision  is  that  it  points  to  the  independent  legal 
status  acquired  by  woman,  who,  as  we  learn  also  from 
business  and  legal  documents,  could  own  property  in 
her  own  right,  borrow  money  and  contract  debts 
independently,  as  long  as  she  did  not  involve  her 
husband's  property,  and  could  appear  as  a  witness  in 
the  courts.  The  dowry  of  a  wife  who  dies  without 
issue  reverts  to  her  father's  estate.  ^ 

That  the  laws  against  incest  are  most  severe  is 
perhaps  not  to  be  taken  as  an  index  of  advanced 
moral  standards,  for  we  find  such  regulations  even 
in  primitive  society  where,  while  promiscuous  inter- 
course with  unmarried  women  is  permitted,  the  severe 
tahoo  imposed  upon  a  wife^  is  extended  to  every  kind 
of  incestuous  relations.  The  Hammurapi  Code  or- 
dains that  a  father  who  has  been  intimate  with  his 
daughter  is  to  be  banished  from  the  city,"*  which 
means  that  he  loses  his  position  and  rights  of  citizen- 
ship. If  he  enters  into  intimate  relations  with  his 
daughter-in-law,  he  is  to  be  strangled,  and  the  woman 
is  to  be  thrown  into  the  water.  ^    If  this  take  place 

^§151. 

'  §  163 — but  the  purchase  money,  given  to  the  father-in-law 
at  the  time  of  marriage,  shall  be  returned  to  the  husband 
3  See  Frazer,  Psyche's  Task,  pp.  30  seg. 

^§154-     5  §155. 
26 


402  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

after  betrothal  but  before  the  actual  marriage,  the 
father  is  let  off  with  a  heavy  fine  and  the  woman  may 
marry  whom  she  pleases.^  When  a  son  is  intimate 
with  his  mother,  both  are  burned.^ 

It  also  betokens  an  advanced  stage  of  society  that 
a  man  can  legitimatise  the  children  born  of  his  wife's 
handmaid,  and  they  then  receive  equal  portions  of 
the  estate  with  the  children  of  the  legitimate  wife;^ 
but  even  if  he  fail  to  legitimatise  such  children,  they 
must  be  set  free  after  his  death.  The  legitimate 
children  have  no  claim  upon  their  half-brothers  and 
half-sisters  born  out  of  wedlock.  "*  Not  only  the  wife 
but  also  the  widow  is  amply  protected  by  the  Code, 
through  the  stipulation  that  a  share  of  her  husband's 
estate  belongs  to  her  in  her  own  right  and  name.  She 
is  to  remain  in  her  husband's  house,  and  if  the  children 
maltreat  her,  the  courts  may  impose  punishment  upon 
them.  If,  however,  of  her  own  accord  the  widow 
leaves  her  husband's  house,  then  she  is  naturally 
entitled  to  her  own  dowry  only,  and  not  to  any  share 
in  her  husband's  estate;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  she 
is  free  in  that  case  to  marry  whomsoever  she 
pleases.  ^  Daughters  are  given  a  share  in  their  father's 
estate,  and  this  is  extended  even  to  those  who  as 
priestesses  have  taken  the  vow  of  chastity.  Such 
nuns  have  a  right  to  their  dowry,  which  they  can  dis- 
pose of  as  they  see  fit,  but  their  share  of  the  paternal 

'§156.     '§157-     3  §  170.     "§171.     s  §  172. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       403 

estate  cannot  be  disposed  of  by  them.  On  the  death  of 
a  nun,  her  share  reverts  to  her  brothers  or  to  their  heirs.  ^ 

Lastly,  as  an  interesting  example  of  an  older  law, 
dating  from  the  period  when  a  man  could  dispose  of 
his  wife  and  children  as  he  disposed  of  his  chattels  and 
possessions,  but  so  modified  as  to  be  practically 
abrogated,  we  may  instance  the  provision  that,  if  a 
man  pledges,  or  actually  sells  his  wife  and  children 
for  his  debts,  the  creditor  can  claim  them  for  three 
years  only.  In  the  fourth  year  they  must  be  set 
free.''  This  stipulation  assumes  an  older  law,  ac- 
cording to  which  a  man  could  sell  his  wife  and  children 
without  condition.  Instead  of  revoking  the  law 
(which,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  is  not  the  usual  mode 
of  procedure  in  ancient  legislation),  the  limitation  of 
three  years  is  inserted,  and  this  changes  the  sale  into 
a  lease.  We  have  a  parallel  in  the  Book  of  the  Cove- 
nant (Exodus  xxi.,  2)  which  provides  that  a  Hebrew 
slave  must  be  set  free  after  six  years.  This  is  prac- 
tically an  abrogation  of  slavery^  by  converting  it 
into  a  lease  for  a  limited  period. 

Coming  to  the  commercial  regulations  of  the  Code, 
the  fundamental  principle  underlying  them  is  the 
fixing  of  responsibility  where  it  belongs,  and  the  pro- 
tecting of  both  parties  to  a  transaction  not  only 
against  fraud  on  either  side,  but  also  against  unfore- 

^§178.    ='§117. 

3  Though  the  provision  applies  to  Hebrew  slaves  only. 


404  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

seen  circumstances.  It  is  somewhat  significant  that, 
although  many  of  the  laws  deal  with  cases  of  wilful 
fraud  or  deceit  in  one  party,  the  general  assumption 
is  that  both  parties  are  actuated  by  honest  motives, 
and  that  difficulties  often  arise  through  no  fault  of 
either,  being  due  to  the  growing  complications  of 
business  activities.  As  a  protection  to  buyer  and 
seller  or  to  any  two  contracting  parties,  it  is  stipulated 
that  there  must  be  a  written  contract  in  the  presence 
of  witnesses.  No  claim  can  be  made  unless  a  con- 
tract can  be  found,  and  the  assumption  is  that  failure 
to  produce  witnesses  in  case  of  a  claim  is  proof  of 
attempted  fraud.  An  interesting  case  is  mentioned 
in  a  series  of  paragraphs,^  of  one  who  asserts  that 
he  has  lost  an  article  belonging  to  him,  which  he 
finds  in  the  possession  of  another,  which,  however, 
the  latter  maintains  that  he  has  bought.  The  point 
is  to  find  the  guilty  party.  The  purchaser  must 
bring  into  court  the  vendor  and  witnesses  to  the  sale, 
and  he  who  claims  the  property  must  bring  witnesses 
to  establish  his  claim.  If  both  sets  of  witnesses  ap- 
pear and  their  testimony  is  shown  to  be  true,  the  ven- 
dor of  the  property  adjudged  to  be  lost  is  revealed  as 
the  thief  and  is  put  to  death,  this  severer  punish- 
ment being  inflicted  because  the  aggravating  factor 
of  fraud  is  added  to  theft.  The  article  is  restored  to 
the  lawful  owner,  and  the  innocent  purchaser  is  com- 
'  §§  9-13- 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death      405 

pensated  out  of  the  estate  of  the  thief  and  fraudulent 
vendor.  If  the  purchaser  fail  to  produce  the  ven- 
dor and  witnesses  to  the  sale,  and  the  claimant  brings 
witnesses  to  prove  his  property,  then  the  ptirchaser 
is  put  to  death  as  the  real  thief,  and  the  stolen  article 
is  restored  to  its  lawful  owner.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  claimant  cannot  bring  witnesses  to  prove  his  pro- 
perty, then  he  is  considered  to  have  made  a  fraudulent 
claim,  and  suffers  the  penalty  of  death.  If  the 
vendor — prove  to  be  such — has  meanwhile  died,  the 
amount  is  nevertheless  to  be  restored  to  the  purchaser 
out  of  the  estate  of  the  vendor.  Finally,  the  law 
allows  a  term  of  six  months  within  which  to  produce 
the  witnesses  in  case  they  are  not  at  once  accessible. 

The  farming  of  lands  for  the  benefit  of  temples  or 
for  lay  owners,  with  a  return  of  a  share  of  the  products 
to  the  proprietors,  was  naturally  one  of  the  most  com- 
mon commercial  transactions  in  a  country  like  the 
Euphrates  Valley,  so  largely  dependent  upon  agri- 
culture. Complications  in  such  transactions  would 
naturally  ensue,  and  it  is  interesting  to  observe  with 
what  regard  for  the  ethics  of  the  situation  they  are 
dealt  with  in  the  Code.  If  a  tenant  fail  to  pro- 
duce a  crop  through  his  own  fault,  he  is  obliged,  of 
course,  to  reimburse  the  proprietor,  and  as  a  basis  of 
compensation,  the  yield  of  the  adjoining  fields  is 
taken  as  a  standard.^     If  he  have  failed,  however,  to 

'§42. 


4o6  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

cultivate  the  field,  he  is  not  only  obliged  to  compensate 
the  owner  according  to  the  proportionate  amount 
produced  in  that  year  in  adjoining  fields,  but  must,  in 
addition,  plough  and  harrow  the  property  before  re- 
turning it  to  the  owner,  besides  furnishing  ten  meas- 
ures— about  twenty  bushels — of  grain  for  each  acre 
of  land.'  In  case  of  a  failure  of  the  crops,  or  a  de- 
struction by  act  of  God,  no  responsibility  attaches  to 
the  tenant,^  but  if  the  owner  had  already  received  his 
share  beforehand,  and  then  through  a  storm  or  an  in- 
undation the  yield  is  spoiled,  the  loss  must  be  borne  by 
the  tenant.^  In  subletting  the  tilling  of  fields  as 
part  payment  for  debt,  it  is  stipulated  that  the  origi- 
nal proprietor  must  first  be  settled  with,  and  after 
that  the  second  lessee,  who  shall  receive  in  kind  the 
amount  of  his  debts  plus  the  usual  interest.  The 
ethical  principle  is,  therefore,  similar  to  that  apply- 
ing in  our  own  days  to  first  and  second  mortgages. 
The  owner  of  a  field  is  responsible  for  damage  done 
to  his  neighbours'  property  through  neglect  on  his 
part — for  example,  through  his  failure  to  keep  the 
dikes  in  order,  or  through  his  cutting  off  the  water 
supply  from  his  neighbour.^  A  shepherd  who  allows 
his  flocks  to  pasture  in  a  field  without  permission  of 
the  owner  is  fined  to  the  extent  of  twenty  measures  of 
grain  for  each  ten  acres.  What  is  left  of  the  pas- 
turage also  belongs  to  the  owner/ 
'§§43,44.   ="§48.    3  §45.    4  §49.    5  §§53-56.     6§  57. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death      407 

The  same  care,  with  due  regard  to  the  ethics  of  the 
situation,  is  exercised  in  regulating  the  relation  be- 
tween a  merchant  and  his  agent.  The  latter  is,  of 
course,  responsible  for  goods  entrusted  to  him,  in- 
cluding damage  to  them  through  his  fault,  but  if  they 
are  stolen  or  forcibly  taken  from  him — after  swear- 
ing an  oath  to  that  effect — he  is  free  from  further 
responsibility.  ^  Neglect  to  carry  out  instructions  in 
connection  with  a  commission  entails  a  fine  threefold 
the  value  involved,  "^  but,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the 
merchant  tries  to  defraud  his  agent,  he  pays  a  fine 
of  sixfold  the  amount  involved.^  According  to  the 
ethical  principles  governing  the  Code,  the  directors  of 
a  bank  would  be  responsible  to  the  depositors  for 
losses  incurred  through  the  business  transactions  of 
the  bank.  The  protection  of  the  debtor  in  business 
transactions  against  the  tyranny  of  the  creditor  is 
carried  almost  to  an  extreme;  it  would  appear  that 
the  creditor  cannot  attach  the  property  of  his  debtor 
without  obtaining  the  authority  of  the  court;  and  if. 
e.  g.,  he  has  helped  himself  from  the  granary  of  the 
debtor  without  the  latter 's  permission,  although  he 
may  not  have  taken  more  than  the  amount  of  the 
debt,  he  must  return  what  he  has  taken,  and  by  his 
wilful  act  forfeits  his  original  claim. ^  The  courts ^ 
regulated  the  hire  of  cattle  for  ploughing  or  other  pur- 
poses, the  wages  of  mechanics  and  labourers,  the  hire 

»§io3.     =^§106.     3  §107.     4  §113.     s§§  257-277, 


4o8  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  ships  for  freight,  the  amount  of  the  return  for  the 
farming  of  fields,  and  even  the  fee  of  siirgeons  for 
operations^ — all  with  a  view  to  affording  protection 
against  both  extortion  and  underpayment. 

VIII 

There  is,  of  course,  also  another  side  to  the  pic- 
ture. The  internal  conditions  of  Babylonia  and  As- 
syria were  at  all  times,  naturally,  far  from  ideal.  The 
people,  as  a  whole,  bad  no  share  in  the  government, 
and,  as  we  have  seen,  only  a  limited  share  in  the  re- 
ligious cult,  which  was  largely  official  and  centred 
around  the  general  welfare  and  the  well-being  of  the 
king  and  his  court.  Slavery  continued  in  force  to  the 
latest  days,  and,  though  slaves  could  buy  their  free- 
dom and  could  be  adopted  by  their  masters,  and  had 
many  privileges,  even  to  the  extent  of  owning  pro- 
perty and  engaging  in  commercial  transactions,  yet 
the  moral  effect  of  the  institution  in  degrading  the 
dignity  of  human  life,  and  in  maintaining  unjust  class 
distinctions  was  none  the  less  apparent  then  than  it 
has  been  ever  since.  The  temples  had  large  holdings 
which  gave  to  the  religious  organisation  of  the  coun- 
try a  materialistic  aspect,  and  granted  the  priests  an 
undue  influence.  Political  power  and  official  pre- 
stige were  permanently  vested  in  the  rulers  and  their 
families  and  attendants.     We  hear,  occasionally,  of 

^  §§  215-217;  221-225. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death      409 

persons  of  humble  birth  rising  to  high  positions,  but 
the  division  of  the  classes  into  higher  and  those  of 
lower  ranks  was  on  the  whole  rigid.  Uprisings  were 
not  infrequent  both  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  and 
internal  dissensions,  followed  by  serious  disturbances, 
revealed  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  majority  with  the 
yoke  imposed  upon  them,  which,  especially  through 
enforced  military  service  and  through  taxes  for  the 
maintenance  of  temples,  armies,  and  the  royal  court, 
must  often  have  borne  heavily  on  them.  The  cruel- 
ties, practised  especially  by  the  Assyrian  rulers  in 
times  of  war,  must  also  have  reacted  unfavourably  on 
the  general  moral  tone  of  the  population. 

But  such  conditions  prevailed  everywhere  in  an- 
tiquity; nor  would  it  be  difficult  to  parallel  them  in 
much  later  ages,  and  even  among  some  of  the  leading 
nations  of  modern  times.  The  general  verdict  in 
regard  to  the  ethics  of  the  Babylonians  and  As- 
syrians need  not,  therefore,  be  altered  because  of  the 
shadows  that  fall  on  the  picture  that  has  been  un- 
rolled. A  country  that  offers  protection  to  all  classes 
of  its  population,  that  imposes  responsibilities  upon 
husbands  and  fathers,  and  sees  to  it  that  those  re- 
sponsibilities are  not  evaded,  that  protects  its  women 
and  children,  that  in  short,  as  Hammurapi  aptly  puts 
it,  aims  to  secure  the  weak  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
strong  and  to  mete  justice  to  all  alike,  may  fairly  be 
classed   among   civilisations   which,   however   short 


410  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

'they  may  fall  of  the  ideal  commonwealth,  yet 
recognise  obedience  to  ethical  principles  as  the 
basis  of  well-being,  of  true  culture,  and  of  genuine 
religion. 

And  yet  how  harsh  is  the  judgment  passed  by  the 
Hebrew  prophets  and  psalmists  on  both  Babylonia 
and  Assyria!  Prophet  and  religious  poet  unite  in 
accusing  them  of  the  most  terrible  crimes;  they  ex- 
haust the  Hebrew  vocabulary  in  pronouncing  curses 
upon  Assyria  and  Babylonia.  All  nattue  is  repre- 
sented as  rejoicing  at  their  downfall,  and  it  has  often 
been  remarked  that  the  prediction  that  jackals  and 
hyenas  would  wander  through  the  ruins  of  Assyria's 
palaces  and  Babylonia's  temples  has  been  fulfilled 
almost  to  the  letter.  The  pious  Jews  of  later  ages 
saw  the  divine  punishment  sent  for  the  many  crimes 
of  these  empires  of  the  East,  in  the  obliteration  of  the 
vast  cities  of  the  Euphrates  Valley  and  the  region  to 
the  north,  until  their  very  foimdation  stones  were 
forgotten.  ^ 

It  was  natural  that  to  the  Hebrew  patriots  Assyria 
and  Babylonia  should  appear  to  be  the  embodiment 
of  all  evils;  was  it  not  through  Assyria  that  Israel 
fell,  and  through  Babylonia  that  Jerusalem  was  de- 
stroyed? Through  the  double  blow  the  national  life 
of  the  Jews  was  threatened  with  utter  extinction. 

*  Xenophon  actually  passes  by  the  spot  on  which  Nineveh 
stood  without  knowing  it. 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death      411 

Both  empires,  therefore,  appeared  to  the  Jews  as  in- 
carnations of  all  that  was  evil  and  cruel  and  sinful. 

Assyria  was  cruel  toward  her  foes  and,  if  Babylonia 
has  a  gentler  record,  it  is  because  she  never  so  greatly 
developed  military  prowess  as  did  her  northern  cousin. 
Cruelty  to  enemies  is  indeed  the  darkest  blot  on  the 
escutcheon  of  all  nations,  ancient  or  modern.  The 
Hebrews  are  no  exception,  and  one  need  only  read  the 
pages  of  their  own  chronicles  to  match  therein  some  of 
the  cruelties  so  vividly  depicted  by  the  Assyrians  on 
their  monuments.  To  judge  fairly  of  the  ethics  of 
an}^  people,  we  must  take  them  at  their  best.  War  for 
conquest,  while  it  may  lead  to  heroic  exploits,  un- 
folds the  worst  passions  of  men.  This  has  always 
been  the  case  and  always  will  be.  The  conqueror  is 
always  haughty  and  generally  merciless,  the  con- 
quered are  always  embittered  and  filled  with  hatred 
towards  those  who  have  humiliated  them.  Tested  by 
their  attitude  towards  rivals  and  foes,  what  modern 
nation  can  stand  the  judgment  of  an  Isaiah  or  a 
Jeremiah?  The  culture  that  developed  in  the  Eu- 
phrates Valley  is  full  of  defects,  its  ethics  one  de- 
ficient, the  rehgion  full  of  superstition.  Assyria 
exhausted  her  vitaHty  by  ceaseless  warring;  Baby- 
lonia fell  into  decay  through  internal  dissensions  and 
through  intrigues  against  her  rival.  The  pages  of  the 
annals  of  both  nations  are  full  of  abhorrent  stains, 
but  maugre  all  drawbacks,  the  tendency  of  culture, 


412    Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

religion,  and  ethics  was  toward  higher  ideals;  the 
movement  was  in  the  right  direction. 

Many-sided  may  be  the  touchstones  of  progress. 
Perhaps  sharpest  is  respect  for  human  life.  Herein 
modern  civilisations  represent,  and  naturally,  an  ad- 
vance beyond  antiquity.  We  are  become  more  hu- 
mane, though  the  lowest  instincts  of  man  remain, 
and  may  always  remain  unconquered.  None  the 
less,  the  ancient  civilisations,  and  not  the  least  among 
them  that  which  arose  in  the  Euphrates  Valley  and 
spread  its  influence  far  and  wide,  have  much  to 
teach  us.  To  the  study  of  the  religion  of  Babylonia 
and  Assyria  the  summons  is  full  of  promise: — in- 
troite,  nam  et  hie  dii  sunt.  Ay,  so  indeed  they  are! 
The  breath  of  the  Divine  sighs  through  that  religion 
— as  it  does  through  all  sincere  religions,  however 
various  their  forms,  or  humble  and  manifold  their 
yearnings  after  truth. 


IX 


The  mention  of  the  Hebrew  prophets  and  psalmists 
suggests  a  final  question  to  which  a  brief  answer  may 
be  presented  in  a  general  survey  of  some  of  the  more 
striking  elements  of  the  religion  of  Babylonia  and  As- 
syria. To  what  extent  do  those  elements  stand  re- 
lated to  the  rehgion  of  the  Hebrews?  What  are  the 
influences,  if  any,  of  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  be- 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       413 

liefs  and  practices  on  those  developed  in  Palestine 
during  the  centuries  of  Hebrew  supremacy? 

A  vigorous  school  of  thought  has  recently  arisen 
in  Germany,'  which  maintains  that  the  civilisation 
of  the  Euphrates  Valley  has  coloured  the  beliefs  and 
practices  of  all  antiquity — including  those  which  we 
have  been  accustomed  to  regard  as  distinctively 
Hebraic  contributions  to  the  world's  intellectual  and 
spiritual  life.  There  is  a  tendency  to  trace  a  majority 
of  the  Hebrew  traditions  to  Baby  Ionian- Assyrian 
sources,  to  see  in  the  myths  of  Genesis,  in  the  legends 
of  the  patriarchs,  and  even  in  the  accounts  of  histori- 
cal personages  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  reflections  of 

^  The  founder  and  leader  of  the  school  is  the  distinguished 
and  brilliant  Prof.  Hugo  Winckler,  who  has  set  forth  his  views 
in  numerous  publications.  Winckler  has  found  in  Dr.  Alfred 
Jeremias  his  strongest  and  ablest  ally,  and  in  addition  there  are 
many  other  followers.  As  an  outcome  of  the  movement,  a 
society  for  the  comparative  study  of  mythology  has  been  founded 
in  Germany  which,  in  its  publications  under  the  general  title 
of  Mythologische  Bibliothek,  applies  the  method  of  Winckler- 
Jeremias  to  the  myths  and  folk-tales  of  all  nations;  and  while 
not  directly  stated,  it  is  implied  in  all  these  special  studies  of 
particular  stories  that  the  astral  character  revealed  in  them 
originated  in  the  astral-mythological  system  that  had  its  rise 
in  the  Euphrates  Valley.  By  "astral-mythology,"  the  school 
means  that  all  myths  involve  the  personification  of  the  heavenly 
bodies — chiefly  sun,  moon,  and  Venus — and  that  the  explanation 
of  all  myths  is  to  be  sought  in  the  phenomena  of  the  heavens. 
For  a  criticism  of  the  school,  and  indications  of  the  chief  litera- 
ture on  the  subject  see  the  present  writer's  Presidential  Address 
before  the  Third  International  Congress  for  the  History  of  Re- 
ligions (Semitic  Section),  Transactions y  i.,  p.  233  seq. 


414  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

an  astral-mythology  and  an  astral-theology  which 
were  developed  in  the  priestly  schools  of  the  Euphrates 
Valley. 

At  this  late  day  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  ques- 
tion the  kinship  between  certain  elements  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  what  we  find  in  the  religion  of  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria,  and  yet  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the 
conviction  that  its  closeness  has  been  exaggerated. 

It  was  natural  and  excusable  in  the  first  glow  of 
enthusiasm  over  striking  discoveries  that  their  im- 
portance should  be  both  overestimated  and  over- 
stated. Tempting  generalisations  were  hastily  drawn 
of  a  direct  borrowing  by  the  younger  civilisation  from 
the  older;  and  as  more  and  more  resemblances  be- 
tween the  two  were  revealed,  this  discovery  involved 
the  originality  of  the  later  Hebrew  civilisation  to  such 
an  extent  that  there  seemed  to  be  little  left  that  had 
not  been  taken  from  Babylonia  or  Assyria. 

The  thesis  suggested  by  a  more  critical  examina- 
tion of  the  abundant  material  now  at  hand  is  that 
resemblances  in  myths  and  traditions  are  frequently 
as  deceptive  as  resemblances  in  the  words  of  different 
languages.  Unless  we  have  a  tolerably  complete 
chain  of  evidence  of  a  direct  borrowing  and  can  also 
show  that  it  proceeded  according  to  certain  prin- 
ciples, there  is,  at  least,  an  equal  probability  for  the 
existence  of  a  common  source,  from  which  traditions 
may  have  spread  in  various  directions — a  supposi- 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       415 

tion  that  has  the  advantage,  moreover,  of  accounting 
satisfactorily  for  the  differences  among  the  traditions, 
as  well  as  for  their  similarities. 

That  there  is  a  stock  of  tradition  common  to  both 
Hebrews  and  Babylonian- Assyrians  is  evident.  The 
resemblances,  for  instance,  between  the  Biblical  tales 
of  Creation  and  of  the  Flood,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  Baby  Ionian- Assyrian  myths,  on  the  other,  are  too 
close  to  be  accidental;  and  likewise  in  the  beliefs  and 
practices  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  there  are  many 
analogies  to  those  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria.  Some 
of  these  we  have  had  occasion  to  point  out,^  and 
they  can  best  be  accounted  for  through  the  assump- 
tion of  a  common  starting-point,  while  in  other  cases, 
to  be  sure,  the  analogies  clearly  point  to  a  direct  bor- 
rowing by  the  Hebrews.  However,  the  contrasts 
between  the  two  lines  of  religious  development,  as  be- 
trayed by  the  forms  assumed  by  these  traditions,  be- 
liefs, and  practices,  are  no  less  striking.  Even  in  the 
Biblical  stories  of  the  Creation  and  of  the  Flood,  the 
significant  feature  is  the  minimising  of  the  mythical 
element,  whereas  in  those  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria 
myth  is  always  in  the  foreground.  Instead  of  a 
conflict  between  primeval  chaos  and  the  gods,  re- 
presentative of  law  and  order,  we  have  in  Genesis  the 
spirit   of   Elohim   breathing   upon   the   waters.     In- 

^  See  above,  pp.  72  seq.,  90,  note  i,  266,  275,  284,  note  i,  290, 
332,364,  etc. 


4i6   Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

stead  of  a  sun-god  of  the  spring  triumphing  over  the 
storms  of  winter,  we  have  the  conception  of  a  mys- 
terious Power  behind  and  above  creation,  bringing  the 
world  and  all  the  phenomena  of  nature  into  being  by 
the  majesty  of  his  word.  The  divine  fiat,  "Let  there 
be  light,"  lifts  the  ancient  myth  out  of  the  sphere  in 
which  it  arose  to  the  dignity  of  a  sublime  paeon  in 
praise  of  a  supermundane  Creator.  The  language  is 
still  anthropomorphic,  but  the  thought  rises  to  the 
spiritual  heights  attained  by  the  best  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  and  evoked  the  praise  of  even  the  Latin 
critic,  Longinus. 

No  less  striking  in  the  form  assumed  by  the  BibHcal 
traditions  is  the  ethical  strain  that  diffuses  through 
them,  as  salt  is  diffused  through  the  waters  of  the 
sea.  In  this  respect,  likewise,  they  present  a  note- 
worthy contrast  to  the  myths  and  legends  of  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria.  Ut-Napishtim  is  saved  from  the 
general  destruction  merely  because  he  is  a  favourite  of 
Ea.  Noah  is  singled  out  because  of  his  superior 
merits.  The  Babylonian  deluge  remains  on  the  level 
of  the  original  foundation  of  myth — it  is  simply  another 
aspect  of  the  change  of  seasons  from  the  dry  summer 
to  the  stormy  and  rainy  winter;  in  the  Biblical  story 
the  setting  is  the  same,  but  the  tone  is  entirely  changed 
by  the  fact  that  the  storm  which  overwhelms  man- 
kind is  sent  as  a  punishment  for  sin  and  widespread 
corruption.     In  the  same  way,  into  the  stories  of  the 


Ethics  and  Life  after  Death       417 

patriarchs — a  mixture  of  legend  and  myth — an  ethical 
spirit  has  been  transfused  that  appears  at  its  strongest 
in  the  prophets  and  in  the  best  of  the  psalms. 

In  the  same  way  also,  the  entire  history  of  the 
nation  is  told  from  the  standpoint  of  that  ethical 
monotheism  which  represents  the  sublimest  attain- 
ment of  Hebrew  aspiration.  The  ancient  and  later 
codes,  combining  the  legal  and  religious  practices  of 
various  periods,  are  welded  into  a  fictitious  unity  by 
the  conception  that  behind  the  laws  stands  a  divine 
Lawgiver,  governing  the  universe  by  self-imposed 
standards  of  justice,  harmoniously  blended  with 
divine  mercy  and  sympathy  for  the  weakness  of  hu- 
man nature.  The  kernel  and  true  meaning  of  the 
monotheistic  conception  of  the  universe,  as  unfolded 
by  the  prophets,  is  lost  by  any  endeavour  to  place 
the  conception  on  a  level  with  the  monotheistic  strain 
that  is  vaguely  but  unquestionably  present  in  the 
speculations  of  the  Babylonian- Assyrian  priests.' 
Monotheism,  in  itself,  is  not  specifically  religious,  but 
rather  the  outcome  of  philosophic  thought — not 
necessarily  even  of  a  high  order  of  thought,  for  even 
among  people  standing  on  a  comparatively  inferior 
level,  we  find  faint  suggestions  of  such  a  view  of  the 
government  of  the  universe.  Monotheism  becomes 
religious  only  through  the  infusion  of  the  ethical 
spirit.     For  the  first  time,   in  this  combination,   it 

/  See  above,  pp.  38  and  103. 


41 8   Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

makes  its  appearance  in  Hebrew  history  during  the 
centuries  which  produced  an  Amos,  a  Hosea,  a  Micah, 
an  Isaiah,  and  a  Jeremiah — whose  teachings  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  assertion  that  the  government  of  the 
universe  is  an  expression  of  the  sovereignty  of  ethics. 
The  question  whether  the  assertion  be  true  or  not  is 
irrelevant,  but  as  it  stands,  it  presents  the  line  of  de- 
marcation that  separates  the  later  form  assumed  by  the 
religion  of  the  Hebrews,  from  other  and  earlier  forms. 
The  exalted  level  attained  by  the  prophets  was 
not  always  maintained  even  by  the  Jews,  for  Tal- 
mudic  Judaism,  which  begins  to  assume  definite  shape 
in  the  century  before  the  appearance  of  the  great 
successor  of  the  old  prophets,  represents  a  reaction, 
reinstating  and  perpetuating  many  rehgious  cus- 
toms and  rites  that  are  merely  survivals  of  cruder 
conceptions — for  the  most  part,  in  fact,  old  Semitic 
practices  that  are  not  even  specifically  Hebraic  or 
Jewish.  Christianity,  too,  vitiated  the  pure  atmo- 
sphere in  which  Jesus  moved,  by  degrading  extra- 
vagances which  entered  it  from  various  quarters, 
but,  none  the  less,  the  new  factor  introduced  into  the 
religious  history  of  mankind  by  the  Hebrew  prophets, 
was  never  entirely  lost  to  sight;  and  it  is  not  difficult 
to  trace  in  some  of  the  religious  movements  of  our  own 
days  the  continued  influence  of  that  factor. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LISTS 

These  lists,  intended  merely  as  a  guide  to  the 
reader,  are  based  on  recent  historical  researches 
associated  chiefly  with  the  names  of  Eduard  Meyer, 
L.  W.  King,  Francois  Thureau-Dangin,  Arthur 
Ungnad,  and  Arno  Poebel,  but  despite  the  consider- 
able progress  made  during  the  past  few  years,  the 
chronology  beyond  2000  B.C.  is  still  uncertain,  while 
beyond  2500  B.C.  it  is  quite  hypothetical. 

The  sources^  for  our  study  of  Baby  Ionian- Assyrian 
chronology  are  (i)  the  votive  and  historical  inscrip- 
tions and  monuments  of  rulers,  to  which  (for  the 
later  Assyrian  and  for  the  Neo-Babylonian  period) 
are  to  be  added:  (2)  the  historical  annals  of  the 
kings;   (3)   the  dates  attached  to  the  thousands  of 

I  The  most  satisfactory  discussion  of  these  sources  will  be 
found  in  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altirtums,  I.,  2,  pp.  313-346. 
This  work  and  King's  History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria — both  in 
course  of  publication — are  the  two  standard  works  on  the  history 
of  the  Euphratean  civilisation,  replacing  the  older  histories  of 
Tiele,  Hommel,  Winckler,  etc.,  while  Rogers's  useful  History  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria  now  requires  revision  in  order  to  be 
brought  up  to  date.  A  great  deal  of  valuable  material  with 
learned  discussions  is  embodied  in  Hommel 's  Grundriss  der 
Geo  graphic  und  Geschichte  des  Alten  Orients  (in  course  of  pub- 
lication), but  unfortunately  in  combination  with  many  theories 
and  conjectures,  which  though  often  ingenious  are  frequently 
extremely  hazardous.  It  should  perhaps  be  added  that  Vol. 
I.  of  King's  work,  above  referred  to,  is  generally  quoted  by  its 
separate  title  "History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad," 

419 


420  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

business  and  legal  documents  of  the  various  periods; 
(4)  the  lists  of  kings  for  Babylonia,  and  lists  of  Epo- 
nyms  for  Assyria,  prepared  by  official  annalists  to 
whom  we  also  owe:  (5)  a  number  of  chronicles  for 
both  Babylonia  and  Assyria.  Unfortunately,  these 
Hsts  and  chronicles  have  come  down  to  us  in  a  badly 
preserved  condition,  which  has  greatly  complicated 
the  task  of  scholars  in  determining  the  sequence  of 
the  many  names  of  rulers  of  political  centres  and 
districts  for  the  earher  periods,  as  secured  from  the 
votive  inscriptions  and  from  the  dates  attached  to 
documents.  Finally,  (6)  we  have  the  lists  of  rulers 
in  the  fragments  of  Berosus  (embodying  a  curious 
mixture  of  legendary  and  traditional  lore)  and  the 
lists  and  historical  references  in  other  Greek  writers 
which,  as  a  matter  of  course,  can  now  only  be  used  in 
connection  with  the  data  from  the  monuments.  Of 
special  value,  however,  is  the  so-called  Ptolemaic 
Canon  which  extends  from  the  middle  of  the  eighth 
century  B.C.  to  the  end  of  Baby  Ionian- Assyrian 
history. ' 

The  eight  epochal  events  in  Baby  Ionian- Assyrian 
history  from  the  chronological  point  of  view  are 
(i)  the  establishment  of  the  Empire  of  Sumer  and 
Akkad  under  the  control  of  the  Semitic  kings  of 
Agade-Sargon  and  his  son  Naram-Sin — c.  2500 
B.C.,  (2)  the  Sumerian  reaction  under  the  Ur  dynasty 
(c.  2300-2200  B.C.),  (3)  the  final  triumph  of  the 
vSemites  and  the  union  of  the  Euphratean  states 
under  Hamurapi  (c.  2000  B.C.),  (4)  the  definite 
advance  of  Assyria  which  may  be  dated  from  the  ad- 
vent of  Tiglathpileser  I.  (c.  1125  B.C.),  (5)  Assyria's 
complete    control    of    Babylonia,    beginning    about 


Chronological  Lists  421 

the  ninth  century,  B.C.,  (6)  the  fall  of  the  Assyrian 
Empire  in  606  B.C.,  (7)  the  rise  of  the  Neo-Baby- 
lonian  Empire  with  Nabopolassar  in  625  B.C.,  (8) 
the  conquest  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus  in  539  B.C. 

Previous  to  the  days  of  Sargon  and  Naram-Sin, 
we  find  now  one  centre,  now  another — like  Lagash, 
Uruk,  Kish,  Larsa,  Ur,  and  Umma — extending  its 
control,  and  the  ultimate  union  of  the  southern 
(Sumerian)  states  is  foreshadowed  by  rulers  who 
call  themselves  "King  of  Sumer. "  The  union  of 
Sumer  with  Akkad  (the  designation  of  the  northern 
section  of  the  Euphrates  Valley  which  was  the  strong- 
hold of  the  Semitic  settlements)  is  thus  a  natural 
consequence  of  this  movement,  brought  about  through 
the  steady  advance  of  the  Semites,  despite  the  tem- 
porary Sumerian  reaction  represented  by  the  Ur 
dynasty. 

As  the  most  convenient  method  of  furnishing  an 
historical  survey,  the  rulers  of  the  various  centres, 
so  far  as  known  to  us,  are  here  grouped  in  separate 
lists,  while  beginning  with  the  so-called  first  dynasty 
of  Babylon — for  which  we  have  as  our  basis  a  long 
(though  unfortunately  fragmentary)  list  of  rulers 
with  indications  of  the  length  of  each  reign — the 
rulers  are  arranged  in  ten  continuous  groups  accord- 
ing to  the  dynasties  as  indicated  by  the  official 
annalists. 

In  Assyria,  we  have  only  one  political  centre 
Ashur,  replaced  for  two  short  periods — in  the  four- 
teenth century  (c.  1330-1130  B.C.)  and  again  in  the 
ninth  century  (c.  850  B.C.) — by  Calah,  and  finally 
yielding  to  Nineveh  as  the  capital  in  the  days  of 
Sargon  and  Sennacherib  (722-681  B.C.).     The  names 


422  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

of  Assyrian  rulers — in  the  earlier  days  known  as 
patesis,  later  as  kings — may  therefore  be  arranged 
in  one  continuous  list,  nor  is  it  practicable  for  our 
purposes  (even  were  it  possible)  to  indicate  the  fre- 
quent changes  of  dynasties  through  the  rise  of  usur- 
pers. For  the  neo-Babylonian  dynasty  and  for  the 
Persian  rulers,  the  task  is  a  simple  one  since  the 
data  for  these  centuries  are  complete. 

The  lists  for  the  period  before  the  first  dynasty 
of  Babylon  are  still  very  incomplete.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  there  are  only  a  few  sites  in  Baby- 
lonia at  which  extensive  excavations  have  been 
conducted.  Important  mounds  like  Mukayyar  (Ur), 
Abu  Shahrain  (Eridu),  Tell  Ibrahim  (Cuthah),  El- 
Ohemir  (Kish)  have  not  been  touched,  others  like 
Warka  (Uruk),  Senkerah  (Larsa),  Abu  Hatab  (Ki- 
surra),  Fara  (Shuruppak),  Jokha  (Umma)  have  only 
been  partially  explored,  or  merely  scratched  on  the 
surface.  In  part,  however,  the  fact  that  only  a  few 
rulers  have  been  found  of  certain  places  is  due  to 
other  causes.  So  the  circumstance  that  the  exten- 
sive excavations  at  Nippur  have  yielded  the  names  of 
only  a  few  patesis  is  to  be  accounted  for  through  the 
position  of  Nippur  as  a  religious  rather  than  as  a 
political  centre  (see  pp.  i8,  66,  etc.),  controlled  for  the 
most  part  by  rulers  of  other  centres.  No  doubt 
there  were  many  more  patesis  at  Nippur  than  these 
two,  but  on  the  other  hand  the  political  independence 
must  have  come  to  an  end  at  a  very  early  date. 
The  "foreign"  rulers  either  regarded  themselves 
as  the  patesis,  or  the  position  had  become  a  merely 
nominal  one,  not  carrying  any  real  authority.  Again, 
in  the  case  of  sites  not  far  removed  from  another, 


Chronological  Lists  423 

like  Kish  and  Opis,  or  Shunippak  and  Kisurra,  the 
rivalry  must  have  been  particularly  keen.  The  one 
or  the  other  place  would  hold  the  supremacy,  and 
during  such  a  period  the  patesi  of  the  one  place 
would  also  control  the  other.  Kjsh,  e.g.,  appears 
to  have  outlasted  Opis  and  we  should,  therefore, 
expect  more  patesis  of  the  former,  though  it  is  of 
course  merely  an  accident  that  up  to  the  present 
only  one  patesi  of  Opis  should  be  mentioned  in  the 
material  at  our  disposal,  and  that  in  an  inscription 
of  a  patesi  of  Lagash.  It  is,  however,  entirely  too 
early  to  base  any  definite  conclusions  on  the  rela- 
tively large  or  small  number  of  rulers  at  present 
known  to  us.  The  argumentum  ex  silentio — alwa3^s 
hazardous — is  particularly  so  when  so  much  material 
still  awaits  the  spade  of  the  explorer.  Meanwhile, 
it  will  be  useful  to  the  general  reader  to  obtain  through 
the  enumeration  of  the  cities  for  which  names  of 
rulers  have  been  recovered — even  though  the  number 
of  such  rulers  be  few  or  only  one — a  view  of  the 
many  political  centres  in  the  early  period,  and  of 
the  rivalry  between  them  that  lasted  for  so  many 
centuries  before  a  permanent  union  was  effected. 

Approximate  dates  are  indicated  by  circa.  Special 
attention  has  been  paid  to  indicating  all  the  "syn- 
chronisms" between  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  rulers; 
and  it  is  hoped  that  this  will  be  found  helpful  in 
determining  the  order  and  approximate  position  of 
rulers  in  regard  to  whom  no  definite  dates  can  as 
yet  be  given  for  the  period  or  duration  of  their 
reigns.  Progress  in  Babylonian- Assyrian  chrono- 
logy during  the  last  decade  has  been  chiefly  in  the 
direction  of  obtaining  more  of  these  valuable  syn- 


424  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

chronisms,  which  have  been  the  main  factor  in 
reducing  the  entirely  too  high  dates  formerly  assigned 
for  the  earlier  rulers  in  the  Euphrates  Valley. 

The  few  abbreviations  used  are  (i)  p  for  patesi 
(for  which  see  p.  21  note),  (2)  k  for  king,  (3)  s  for  son, 
(4)  h  for  brother,  (5)  figures  within  brackets  indicate 
duration  of  reign,  (6)  an  asterisk  indicates  uncertainty 
as  to  the  position  of  a  ruler  in  the  list. 

The  following  identifications  of  mounds  with  an- 
cient sites  (see  the  map) — arranged  in  alphabetical 
order — should  be  especially  noted. 


Abu-Habba 

= 

Sippar 

Abu  Hatab 

= 

Kisurra 

Abu  Shahrain 

= 

Eridu 

Arbela 

= 

Arba'ili 

Akarkuf 

= 

Dur-Kurigalzu 

Babil(orMujelibe), 

with 

el-Kasr,    Amran-ibn- 

Ali  and  Jumjuma 

= 

Babylon 

Birs  Nimrud 

= 

Borsippa 

Bismaya 

= 

Adab 

El-Ohemir 

= 

Kish 

Fara 

= 

Shuruppak  (or  Shurippak) 

Jokha 

= 

Umma 

Kaleh-Shergat 

= 

Ashur 

Khorsabad 

= 

Dur-Sharrukin 

Kouyunjik  (and   Nebi- 

Yunus) 

= 

Nineveh 

Mukayyar 

= 

Ur 

Niffer 

= 

Nippur 

Nimroud 

= 

Calah 

Seleucia 

= 

Opis(?) 

Chronological  Lists  425 

Senkerah  =  Larsa 

Sepharvaim  =  Agade 

Tell-Ibrahim  =  Cuthah 

Telloh  =  Lagash  (Shirpurla,  Girsu) 

Tell  Sifr  =  Diir-gurgurri(?) 

Warka  =  Uruk  (or  Erech). 

Rulers  of  Lagash 

Lugal-shag-Engur  (p.)   contemporary  with   Mesilim, 

k.  of  Kish  (c.  3050  B.C.  (?)) 
*Badu  (k.) 
*En-khegal  (k.) 
Ur-Nina  (k.)  s.  of  Gunidu,  grandson  of  Gursar  (c. 

2975  B.C.) 
Akurgal  (p.)  (s.) 
E-annatum  (p.  and  k.)  (s.) 
En-annatum  I.  (p.)  (b.)  c.  2900  B.C. 
En-temena  (p.)  (s.)  c.  2850  B.C. 
En-annatum  11.  (p.)  (s.) 
En-etarzi  (p.) 
En-litarzi  (p.) 

Lugal-anda  (p.)  (s.)  (Fuller form Lugal-anda-nushuga.) 
Uru-kagina  (k.)  usurper,  contemporary  with  Lugal- 

zaggisi,  k.  of  Uruk  (c.  2750  B.C.) 
En-gilsa    (p.)    (s.)   contemporary  with   Manish-tusu, 

k.  of  Kish  (c.  2700  B.C.) 
Lugul-ushumgal   (p.)   contemporary  with  Sargon  of 

x\gade  (c.  2500  B.C.) 
Ur-Babbar    (p.)    contemporary   with    Naram-Sin   of 

Agade  (c.  2470  B.C.) 
*Ur-E  (p.) 
*Lugal-bur  (p.) 


426  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

*Basha-Mama  (p.) 

*Ur-Mama  (p.) 

*Ug-me  (p.) 

Ur-Bau  (p.)  usurper  (c.  2400  B.C.) 

Nam-makhni  (p.)  (son-in-law.) 

Ur-gar  (p.)  also  son-in-law  of  Ur-Bau  (?) 

*Ka-azag  (p.) 

*Galu-Bau  (p.) 

*Galu-Gula  (p.) 

*Ur-Ninsun  (p.) 

Gudea  (p.)  c.  2350  B.C. — usurper 

Ur-Ningirsu  (p.)   (s.)  contemporary  with  Ur-Engur, 

k.  of  Ur  (c.  2300  B.C.) 
*Ur-abba  (p.)  (s.) 
*Galu-kazal  (p.) 
*Galu-andul  (p.) 
*Ur-Lama  I.  (p.)  (c.  2240  B.C.) 
*Alla  (p.) 
*Ur-Lama   II.    (p.)    (s.)    contemporary   with   Dtingi, 

k.  of  Ur  (c.  2225  B.C.) 
Arad-Nannar^  (p.)  contemporary  with  Bur-Sin,  k.  of 

Ur  and  his  two  successors,  i.e.  up  to  c.  2200  B.C. 

Rulers  of  Nippur 

Ur-Enlil  (p.)  c.  3000  B.C. 

Lugal-ezendig  (p.) 

Ur-nabbad  (p.)  (s.)  contemporary  with  Dungi,  k.  of 

Ur  (c.  2260  B.C.) 

^  In  addition  to  being  patesi  of  Lagash,  he  calls  himself  patesi  or 
governor  of  twelve  other  places  or  districts.  See  Thureau- 
Dangin,  Sumerisch-Akkadische  Konigsinschriften,  p.  148  seq.\ 
King,  op.  cit.,  p.  301  seg^. 


Chronological  Lists  427 

Dada  (p.)  contemporary  with  Ibi-Sin,  last  King  of  Ur. 

(C.  2200  B.C.) 

Rulers  of  Adas 
Esar  (k.)  c.  3000  b.c.(?) 

Rulers  of  Shuruppak 

-r^-,    i    1  /    /    X      c  Period  uncertain. 
Khaladda  (p.)     J 

Rulers  of  Umma 

*E-Abzu  (k.) 

Ush  (p.) 

En-akalli  (p.)  j  contemporary  with  E-annatum 

Ur-lumma'  (k.)  (s.)  |      of  Lagash  (c.  2925  B.C.) 

Hi  (p.)  appointed  by  En-temena  p.  of  Lagash  (c. 
2850  B.C.) 

Ukush  (p.) 

Lugal-zaggisi  (k.)  (s.)  See  also  under  Rulers  of 
Uruk — contemporary  with  Uru-kagina,  p.  of  La- 
gash (c.  2750  B.C.) 

Kur-shesh  (p.)  contemporary  with  (or  generation 
before  (?)  )  Manish-tusu,  k.  of  Kish  (c.  2700  B.C.) 

*Galu-Babbar  (p.) 

Ur-nesu  (p.)  contemporary  of  Dungi,  k.  of  Ur  (c. 
2240  B.C.) 

Ruler  of  Opis 

Zuzu  (k.)  defeated  by  E-annatum,  p.  of  Lagash  (c. 

2950  B.C.) 

^  Perhaps  to  be  read  Ur-khumma. 


428  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Rulers  of  Uruk 

Lugal-zaggisi  (k.)  c.  2750  B.C.  (also  "King  of  Sumer") 

*Lugal-kigub-nidudu  (k.)  (also  k.  of  Ur.) 

*Lugal-kisalsi  (k.)  (also  k.  of  Ur.) 

Sin-gashid  (k.)  ) 

Sin-gamiKk.)    }  (c  8i50-*no  B.C..) 

An-am  s.  of  Bel-shemea''  (k.) 
Arad-shag-rhag  (k.) 
Sm-eribam(?)3  (k.) 

Rulers  of  Basime 

Ilsu-rabi  (p.) 

Ibalum  (p.)  contemporary  with  (or  generation  before 
(?)  )  Manish-tusu  k.  of  Kish  (c.  2700  B.C.) 

Rulers  of  Kish 

Utug  (p.)  son  of  Bazuzu — perhaps  an  usurper  (?) 
Mesilim    (k.)    contemporary   with  Lugal-shag-Engur 

p.  of  Lagash  (c.  3050  B.C.  (?)  ) 
Ur-zage  (k.) 

Lugal-tarsi  (k.)  c.  2950  B.c.(?) 
Enbi-Ishtar  (k.)  c.  2800  B.C. 
Sharrukin  (k.)  c.  2750  B.C. 

^  These  two  rulers  probably  belong  to  a  period  contemporane- 
ous with  the  earlier  rulers  of  the  first  dynasty  of  Babylonia 
(see  below  p.  432).  The  reading  of  the  second  name  is  not  cer- 
tain.    See  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums  I.,  2,  page  505). 

'  During  the  closing  decades  of  the  Isin  dynasty  (below  p.  430), 
Uruk  secures  its  independence.  How  long  it  was  maintained 
we  do  not  know,  but  presumably  a  century  at  the  most. 

3  According  to  Scheil,  Oriental.  Litteraturzeitung,  vol.  VIII., 
p.  350. 


Chronological  Lists  429 

Manish-tusu  (k.)  c.  2700  B.C. 
Uru-mush  (k.)  c.  2600  B.C. 
*Ashdum-erim  (k.)  c.  2100  B.C. 
Manana  (k.)  c.  2075  B.C. 
Sumu-ditana  (k.)  c.  2060  B.C. 
Jawium  (k.)  c.  2050  B.C. 
*Khalium  (k.) 

Rulers  Calling  Themselves  (also)  King  of  Sumer 

Lugal-zaggisi,  k.  of  Uruk  and  k.  of  "the  land"  (c. 

2750  B.C.)  ^ 
Lugal-kigub-nidudu,  k.  of  Uruk  and  Ur. 
Lugal-kisalsi,  k.  of  Uruk  and  Ur.^ 
En-shag-kushanna,  lord  of  Summer,  k.  of  "the  land." 
[These  three  before  2500  B.C. — perhaps  before  2600 

B.C.] 

Rulers  of  Agade 

Shar-gani-sharri    (i.e.    Sargon)    (k.)    (son    of    Dati- 

Enlil),  c.  2500  B.C. 3 
Naram-Sin  (k.)  (s.)  c.  2470  B.C. 

^  "King  of  the  land"  is  a  designation  for  Sumer. 

^  These  two  rulers,  though  they  do  not  use  the  designation 
"king  of  the  land,"  evidently  belong  to  the  group,  Uruk  and 
Ur  being  employed  to  indicate  the  extent  of  the  control.  Of 
another  "king  of  the  land"  who  defeats  Enbi-Ishtar,  King 
of  Kish  (c  2800  B.  c),  four  fragmentary  vase  inscriptions  have 
been  found  at  Nippur,  but  unfortunately  in  all  four  cases,  the 
name  of  the  ruler  is  broken  out.  See  Hilprecht,  Old  Babylonian 
Inscriptions,  I.,  2,  Nos.  102-105;  no. 

3  Nabonnedos  (last  king  of  Babylonia,  555-539  b.  c.)  gives 
the  date  of  Sargon  as  3200  years  earlier,  i.  e.  c.  3750  b.  c.  which, 
however,  turns  out  to  be  about  1300  years  too  high.  See  above 
P-  295. 


430  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Bin-gani-sharri  (s.)^ 

Rulers  of  Ur* 

Years 


Ur-Engiir  (k.) 

(i8) 

C.  2300  B.C, 

Dungi  (k.)  (s.) 

(58) 

C.  2280  B.C, 

Bur-Sin  I.  (k.)  (s.) 

(9) 

C.  2220  B.C, 

Gimil-Sin3  (k.)  (s.) 

(9) 

C.  2210  B.C, 

Ibi-Sin  (k.)  (s.) 

(25) 

C.  2200  B.C, 

Rulers  of  I  six  (16  Kings) 

Years 


Ishbi-Ura 

(32) 

C.  2175  B.C, 

Gimil-ilishu  (s.) 

(10) 

C.  2145  B.C, 

Idin-Dagan  (s.) 

(21) 

C.  2135  B.C. 

Ishme-Dagan  (s.) 

(20) 

C.  2II5  B.C. 

Libit-Ishtar  (s.) 

(II) 

C.  2095  B.C. 

Ur-Ninib 

(28) 

C.  2085  B.C. 

Bur-Sin,  II.  (s.) 

(21) 

C.  2060  B.C. 

Iter-kasha  (s.) 

(5) 

C.  2040  B.C. 

Ura-imitti  (b.) 

( 7) 

C.  2035  B.C. 

Sin-ikisha 

(K) 

C.  2028  B.C. 

Enlil-bani 

(24) 

C.  2027  B.C. 

^  Not  certain  that  he  succeeded  his  father. 

2  While  from  a  list  found  at  Nippur  (?),  we  have  the  years  of 
the  duration  of  each  reign  for  the  dynasties  of  Ur  and  of  Isin 
indicated,  the  uncertainty  of  the  chronology  of  this  period 
demands  caution  in  following  them  too  literally.  I  have,  there- 
fore, suggested  approximate  dates  without  too  close  adhesion 
to  the  exact  figures  in  the  list  in  question.  The  five  rulers 
represent  a  regular  succession  from  father  to  son. 

3  An  official  of  this  king,  Lugal-magurri,  calls  himself  patesi  of 
Ur  and  commander  of  the  fortress. 


(3) 

C.  2003  B.C, 

(5) 

C.  2000  B.C. 

(4) 

C.  1995  B.C. 

(II) 

C.  1990  B.C. 

(23) 

C.  1980  B.C. 

Chronological  Lists  431 


Zambia 

[Name  missing] 
Ea  .  .  .  . 

Sin-magir 
Damik-ilishu  (s.) 

Rulers  of  Ur  and  Larsa 

Gungunu  (k.)  c.  2085  B.C.  contemporary  with 

Ur-Ninib ,  k.  of  Isin. 

Sumu-ilu  (k.) 

Nur-Adad  (k.)  c.  2030   " 

Sin-Iddinam  (k.)  (s.)  c.  2020   " 

Arad-Sin  (k.)  c.  1990   "     s.  of  Kudur-mabuk,a 

ruler  of  a  district 
Emutbal  border- 
ing  on   Elam.  ^ 

Rim-Sin  (k.)       (b.)  c.  1970   '* 

Rulers  of  Kisurra^ 

Idin-ilu  (p.)  3 
Itur-Shamash  (p.?)  (s.) 

Rulers  of  Ishkun-Sin^ 

Khash-khamer    (p.),    contemporary   with    Ur-Engur, 

k.  of  Ur  (c.  2300  B.C.). 

^  Kudur-mabuk  must  have  held  a  good  part  of  Babylonia  in 
subjection,  and  succeeds  in  placing  two  of  his  sons  in  control 
of  Larsa. 

2  Site  of  Abu-Hatab  where,  as  at  the  neighbouring  Fara  ( =  Shu- 
ruppak  the  site  of  the  Babylonian  Deluge),  some  preliminary 
work  of  excavation  has  been  carried  on.  See  Mitteilungen  der 
Deutschen  Orient-Gesellschaft,  Nos,  15-17. 

3  Probably  later  than  the  Ur  Dynasty. 

4  In  northern  Babylonia  (?).  See  King,  History  of  Sumer  and 
Akkad,  p.  281. 


432  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Rulers  of  Dungi-Babbar 

Ux-Pasag  (p.),  in  time  of  Dungi,  k.  of  Ur  (c.  2280  B.C.). 

Rulers  of  Babylonia' 

I.     Dynasty  of  Babylon.     (11  Kings.) 

Years 

Sumu-abu  (14)  c.  2060-2047  B.C.  contem- 

porary 
of  Ilu- 
shuma, 
k.  (or 
p.  ?)  of 
Assyria. 

^  We  now  reach  the  great  Babylonian  list  of  kings  (see  above 
p.  421)  as  our  main  chronological  source,  the  many  gaps  of  which 
can  be  partially  filled  out  through  other  sources.  The  founder 
of  what  the  Babylonian  annalist  calls  the  dynasty  of  Babylon — 
with  its  seat  in  the  city  of  Babylon — is  Sumu-abu,  but  it  is  not 
until  we  reach  the  sixth  member,  Hammurapi,  that  the  rulers  of 
Babylon  can  lay  claim  to  all  of  Sumer  and  Akkad.  Indeed, 
it  would  appear  that  Sumu-abu  started  out  as  a  vassal  of  the 
kings  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  but  with  him  the  movement  of 
extension  and  conquest  begins,  which  culminates  in  Hammurapi's 
overthrow  (c.  1928  B.C.)  of  his  most  formidable  rival,  the  Elamite 
warrior  Rim-Sin,  who  was  also  the  last  ruler  of  the  Larsa  dynasty. 
This  is  also  indicated  by  the  names  of  rulers  incidentally  referred 
to  in  inscriptions  (or  other  documents),  who  are  contemporary 
with  Sumu-lailu  and  other  of  the  earlier  rulers  of  the  Babylonian 
dynasty,  but  independent  of  them,  such  as  Immerrum,  Anman- 
Ila,  Buntakhtun-ila,  who  appear  to  have  ruled  in  Sippar.  Of 
others  who  also  belong  to  this  period  like  Mana-baltel,  Rim- 
Anum,  and  Jakhzar-iH  of  Kasallu  hardly  anything  more  than 
the  names  are  known,  but  their  occurrence  with  royal  titles, 
before  Hammurapi  and   the  other  rulers  of  the  first  dynasty 


Chronological  Lists  433 


Years 

Sumu-lailu  (36)  c.  2046-201 1  B.C. 

Sabum  (s.)  (14)  c.  2010-1997  '' 

Apil-Sin  (s.)  (18)  c.  1996-1979  " 

Sin-muballit  (s.)  (20)  c.  1978-1959  " 

Hammiirapi  (s.)'  (43)  c.  1958-1916  " 

Samsu-iluna  (s.)  (38)  c.  1915-1878  " 
Abeshu  (or  Ebi- 

shum)  (s.)  (28)  c.  1877-1850  " 


contem- 
pora  ry 
with  Ilu- 
ma-i  lu 
(2d  Dy- 
nasty). 


obtained  control  of  Babylonia  indicate  that  the  local  rulers  at 
Sippar,  and  no  doubt  elsewhere,  managed  to  maintain  at  least  a 
partial  independence. 

On  some  still  earlier  rulers,  of  whom,  however,  only  the  names 
remain  (Ilu-illati,  En-men-nunna,  Apil-kishshu),  see  King, 
Chronicles  Concerning  Early  Babylonian  Kings,  ii.,  p.  47. 

For  the  first  dynasty,  the  names  are  wanting  in  the  large 
list  of  kings,  but  can  be  suppHed  from  a  duplicate  fragment 
for  the  first  two  dynasties.  This  duplicate  also  furnishes  the 
length  of  reign  of  each  king  of  the  first  dynasty,  but  the  figures 
appear  to  be  inaccurate.  Those  given  by  me  follow  the  data 
derived  from  the  dates  attached  to  legal  documents,  and  are 
the  ones  now  generally  accepted  by  scholars.  In  a  few  cases, 
they  may  however,  be  a  few  years  out — so  possibly  the  reigns 
of  the  last  two  kings  for  whom  we  have  not  as  yet  sufficient  data 
from  other  sources.  I  follow  the  approximate  dates  as  given  by 
Meyer,  Geschichte,  i.,  2,  p.  507.  From  the  third  member  to  the  end 
of  the  dynasty  we  have  a  continuous  succession  of  father  and  son. 

^  According  to  Nabonnedos  (last  king  of  Babylonia  555- 
539  B.C.  See  Schrader,  Keilinschrijtliche  Bibliothek,  ii.,  p. 
90;  col.  ii.,  20-22),  Hammurapi  ruled  700  years  before  Buma- 
buriash  of  the  Cassite  dynasty  (see  p.  436),  which  turns  out  to 
be  about  100  years  too  much,  just  as  Nabonnedos'  date  for 
Shagarakti-shuriash  (see  below  p.  437,  note  i)  is  likewise  100 
years  too  high. 


434  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Years 
Anmi-ditana  (s.)       (37)  €.1849-18133.0. 
Ammi-saduka  (s.)     (21)  c.  1812-1792    " 
Samsu-ditana  (s.)     (31)  c.  1791-1761    "    ' 

II.     Dynasty  of  the  Sea-Land.     (11  Kings.) ^ 

Iluma-ilu  c.  1900-1870  B.C.  contempo- 

rary with 
S  am  su  - 
iluna  and 
A  b  eshu 
(ist  Dy- 
nasty) . 

Ittili-nibi 

Damik-ilishu  c.  1820  ** 

Ishki-bal 

Shushshi  (b.) 

Gulkishar  c.  1800^  " 

^  Invasion  of  Hittites.     See  King,  op.  cit.,  n.,  p.  22. 

*  Its  seat  was  in  the  region  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  it  does 
not  appear  that  the  rulers  ever  extended  their  sway  as  far  as 
Babylon.  The  first  two  (or  three)  kings  of  this  "Sea-Land" 
dynasty  are  contemporary  with  the  last  five  of  the  dynasty 
of  Babylon;  and  the  last  three  of  the  "Sea-Land"  dynasty  with 
the  first  three  rulers  of  the  Cassite  dynasty.  The  large  Baby- 
lonian list  of  kings  furnishes  the  length  of  the  reign  of  each  of 
these  rulers  of  the  "Sea-Land,"  but  the  figures — a  total  of  368 
years  for  11  kings — are  much  too  high.  They  are  presumably 
guesses  on  the  part  of  the  annalist.  The  dupHcate  fragment 
gives  no  figures  for  this  dynasty. 

3  Enlil-nadinpal  s.  of  Nebuchadnezzar  I.  (c.  1149-1130  B.C.) 
of  the  Isin  dynasty  (below  p.  438)  places  Gulkishar  696  years 
before  his  time,  i.e.,  c.  1835  B.C.,  which  may,  however,  be  a  little 
too  high.     See  Meyer,  op.  cit.,  ii.,  i,  p.  576,  who  thinks  that  the 


Chronological  Lists  435 

Peshgal-daramash  (s.) 

Adara-kalama  (s.) 

Akur  (or  Elair)-ulanna 

Melam-kurkura 

Ea-gamil  c.  1720  B.C.  contempo- 

rary with 
Kash  -  tili- 
ash  I.,  k. 
o  f  Baby- 
lonia  (c. 
1712-1691 

B.C.). 

III.     Cassite  Dynasty.     (36  Kings.)  ^ 

Years 
Gandash  (16)       c.  1750-1735  B.C. 

figures  may  be  about  50  years  too  high;  it  may  even  be  as  much 
as  75  years  out  of  the  way. 

^  The  first  dynasty  of  Babylon  was  brought  to  an  end 
through  an  incursion  of  the  Hittites  (see  above,  p.  434,  note  i), 
and  it  would  appear  that  a  Hittite  ruler  actually  sat  on  the 
throne  of  Babylon  for  a  short  time.  At  all  events  a  period  of 
some  years  elapsed  before  the  Cassites  came  into  control.  As  a 
minimum  we  may  assume  10  years  between  the  end  of  the  d3masty 
of  Babylon  and  the  first  of  the  Cassite  rulers,  though  it  may 
turn  out  to  be  as  much  as  20  years.  Of  the  36  Cassite  rulers, 
only  20  are  preserved  on  the  Babylonian  list  and  many  of  these 
only  in  part,  but  thanks  to  numerous  business  documents  of 
this  period  and  boundary  stones,  most  of  the  defective  names 
may  be  restored  and  others  supplied  together  with  approximate 
lengths  of  their  reigns.  Seven  names,  however,  are  still  entirely 
missing  and  some  of  those  entered  between  Nos,  5-20  are  uncer- 
tain. I  follow  Meyer's  indications,  p.  338,  with  some  modi- 
fications on  the  basis  of  the  researches  of  Ungnad,  Thureau- 
Dangin  and  Clay.  The  latter  was  kind  enough  to  place  his 
results  of  a  special  study  of  this  period  at  my  disposal. 


436  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 


Years 
Agum  I.  (s.)  (22)        C.  1734-1713  B.C. 

Kash-tiiiash  I.,  Usurper. 

b.    of     Ulam-buriash^ 

and  s.  of  Bur-naburiash      (22)        c.  1712-1691   " 
Ushshi  (s.)  (8)        c.  1690-1683   " 

Abi-rattash  (b.?)  of 

Agum  I.?) 
Tazzi-gurumash  (s.) 
Ayum  II.  (s.) 

[Gap  of  about  two  centuries.] 

Kara-indash  contemporary 

with  Ashir- 
rim-n  i  s  c  h  e- 
schu,  k.  of  As- 
syria (c.  1430 

B.C.). 

Kadashman-kharbe  I.  (s.?) 

Kuri-galzu  I.  (s.) 

Bur-naburiash^  (s.)  (25)        contemporary 

with  Puzur- 
Ashur,  k.  of 
Assyria  (c. 
1380  B.C.). 

Kara-khardash  son-in-law       o  f 

Ashur-uballit, 
k.  of  Assyria, 
(c.  1350  B.C.) 

^Who  defeats  Ea-gamil,  last  ruler  of  the  Sea-Land  dynasty, 
but  who  does  not  appear  to  have  actually  occupied  the  throne. 
See  King,  Chronicles  Concerning  Early  Babylonian  Kings,  ii., 
p.  22,  and  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  A  Iter  turns,  i.,  2,  p.  583. 

'  See  above  p.  433,  note  i. 


Chronological  Lists 


437 


Nazi-bugash  (usurper) 

[Kings  5  to  20=   about  340  years. 

B.C.] 


c.  1682-1346 


Years 


Kuri-galzu  II.  (s.  of 


13  urnabunash; 

(23) 

C.  I345-I323  B.C. 

contemporary 

with    Ashur- 

uballit  and  En- 

lil-nirari,  kings, 

of  Assyria. 

Nazi-maruttash  (s) 

(26) 

C.  I322-I297  B.C. 

contemporary 
with  Adad-nir- 
ari  I.,  k.  of  As- 
syria. 

Kadashman-turgu  (s.) 

(17) 

c.  1296-1280  B.C. 

Kadashman-Enlil 

(  6) 

c.  1279-1274    " 

Kudur-Enlil  (s.) 

(  9) 

c.  1273-1265    " 

Shagarakti-shuriash '  (s.) 

(13) 

c.  1264-1252    " 
contemporary 
with   Tukulti- 
Ninib  I.,  k.  of 
Assyria. 

Kash-tiliash  II.  (s.) 

(  8) 

C.  I25I-I244  B.C. 

EnHl-nadinshum  (s.?) 

(iH) 

c.  1243-1242    " 

Kadashman-kharbe  II. 

(iK) 

c.  1242-1241    " 

Adad-shumiddin 

(6) 

c.  1240-1235    " 

^According  to  Nabonnedos  (last  king  of  Babylonia,  555-539 
B.C.)  Shagarakti-shuriash,  the  son  of  Kudur-Enlil,  ruled  800 
years  before  him    (Schrader,    Keilinschriftliche  Bibliothek,  iii.,  i 
p.    106;  col.   iii.   27-29)    which,    however,    appears    to  be    100 
years  too  high. 


438  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 


Adad-nadinakhi  • 


Years 
(30) 


Meli-shipak  (s.?) 
Marduk-paliddin  (s.) 
Zamama-shumiddin 


(15) 
(13) 
(I) 


(3) 


Bel-nadm-[akhi] 

IV.     Isin  Dynasty. 

Years 

Marduk  (17?) 

[Two  names  missing] 

Nebuchadnezzar  I.  usurper  (?)  con- 
temporary with 
Ashur  -  reshishi 
I.,k.  of  Assyria. 

EnHl-nadinpal  (s.) 

M  arduk-nadinakhi  c  o  n  t  e m  porary 
with  Tiglath- 
k. 


C.   I234-I205  B.C. 

contemporary 
with  E  n  1  i  1- 
kudur-usur,  k. 
of  Assyria,  (c. 
1240  B.C.) 
C.    I204-II9O  B.C. 

c.  1189-1177    '* 
c.  1176 

contemporary 
with  Ashurdan 
I.,k.  of  Assyria. 

C.    1 1 75-1 1 73  B.C. 

(11  Kings.) 


C.    II72-II56  B.C. 

c.  1155-1140  " 


pileser     L, 
of  Assyria, 
contemporary 
with  Ashur-bel- 
k  a  1  a,  k.  of  As- 
syria. 
'  Or  perhaps  to  be  read  Adad-shum-usur 
oj  Tukulti- Ninib  I.,  pp.  72  and  99. 


Marduk-shapik- 
zermati, 


.C.I  140-1086  B.C. 


See  King,  Records 


Chronological  Lists 


439 


Adad-paliddin  (s.  of  Itti- 
Marduk-balatu)  ^ 


Marduk-akhirba 

Marduk-zer 

Nabu-shumlibur 


Years 

(22),  usur- 
per,father- 
in-law  of 
Ashur-bel- 
kala,  k.  of 
Assyria. 
(iH)  c. 
(12) 
(  8)? 


c.  1 085- 1 064 

B.C. 


IO64-IO63  B.C. 

c.  1062-1051    " 
c.  1050-1043    " 


V.     Sea-Land  Dynasty.^       (3  Kings.) 

C.   IO42-IO25  B.C. 


Simmash-shipak  (son  of 

Erba-Sin)  (18)^ 

Ea-mukin-zer      (s.      of 

Khash-mar)  (5  months) '•c.  1024  B.C. 

Kashshu-nadinakhi     (s. 

of  Sippaya)  (  3)  c.  1024-1022  b.c 

VI.     Bit-Bazi  Dynasty.     (3  Kings.) 


E-ulmash-shakinshum 

(s.  of  Bazi) 
Ninib-kudurusur  (b.) 
Shilanim-Shukamuna 

(b.) 


Years 

(17)' 
( 3)' 


I 

J-  C.  I020-I000  B.C. 
I 


(3  months)  j 


^  See  King,  Chronicles,  ii,  p.  59,  Note  2. 

2  A  king  of  the  Sea-Land — Marduk-paliddin  is  mentioned  also 
in  the  annals  of  Tiglathpileser  IV.  (745-727  B.C.). 

3  Or  17,  according  to  a  Babylonian  chronicle.     Uprising  under 
the  lead  of  a  man  of  the  Damik-ilishu  Dynasty.     See  above  p.  434. 

4  Or  3,  according  to  a  Babylonian  chronicle. 

s  Or  15,  according  to  a  Babylonian  chronicle. 
^  Or  2,  according  to  a  Babylonian  chronicle. 


440  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 


VII.  Elamitic  Ruler.    (Name  missing.')    (6  years.) 

C.    1000-995    B.C. 

VIII.  (About  1 3  kings  ruling  c.  994-754  among  them.) 


c.  994-959' B.C. 


"Nebo-mukinpal 
*Sibir 

Shamash-mudammik 
Nebo-shumishkun  I. 


Nebo-paliddin^  c.  888-854  B.C. 

Marduk-nadinshum  ^ 
(s.) 


^  contemporary 
'  with  Adad- 
nirari  III. 
(c.  910  B.C.) 
contemporary 
with  Shal- 
maneser 
III.,  k.  of 
Assyria 
(858-824 

B.C.) 

contemporary 
with  Sham- 
shi- Adad 
IV.,  k.  of 
Assyria 
(823-811 

B.C.) 


^  Perhaps  to  be  restored  as  Ea-apal-usur.  See  King,  Chronicles 
Concerning  Early  Babylonian  Kings,  ii.,  p.  55. 

*  This  long  reign  of  36  years  is  now  extremely  probable. 
See  King,  op  cit,  i.,  p.  222  seq. 

3  Ruled  at  least  31  years  extending  back,  therefore,  into  the 
reign  of  Ashur-nasirpal  II.,  k.  of  Assyria,  883-859  B.C.  (See 
Schrader,  op.  cit.,  i.,  p.  98,  col.  iii.,  19.) 

■»  Uprising  under  lead  of  his  brother  Tvlarduk-bel-usati,  but 
crushed  with  the  aid  of  Shalmaneser  III.  (8th  year  =850  B.C.) 
See  Schrader,  op.  cit.,  i.,  p.  134, 11.  73-84. 


Marduk-balatsu-ikbi 
Bau-akhiddin  (to  c.  800 


B.C.) 


Chronological  Lists 


441 


IX.     Dynasty  of  Babylon.     (About  5  kings.) 


Years 


Nebo-shumishkun  II. 

753-748  B.C. 

Nebo-nasir^ 

(14)     747-734        B.C., 

contemporary 

with   Tiglath- 

pileser    IV, 

(745-727  B.C.) 

Nebo-nadinzer  (s.) 

(2) 

733-732  B.C. 

Nebo-shumukin 

(i  mo.) 

^(13  days)  732- 

B.C. 

X.     Various 

Dynasties. 

3 

Mukin-zer 

(  3) 

732-730  B.C. 

Pulu  (  =  Tiglathpileser 

IV.) 

(2) 

729-727  B.C. 

Ulula  (=:Shalmaneser  V.j  (s 

•)    (  5) 

727-722  B.C. 

Marduk-paliddin  I.^ 

(12) 

721-710  B.C. 

Sargon 

(5) 

709-705  B.C. 

^  With  Nebonasir  (  =  Nabonassar)  the  Ptolemaic  Canon 
begins. 

2  According  to  a  Babylonian  chronicle,  a  Httle  over  two 
months.     (King,  op.  cit.,  ii.,  p.  64,  note  i.) 

3  After  Mukin-zer  (or  Nebo-mukin-zer,  as  his  full  name 
appears  on  a  tablet  to  be  published  shortly  by  Prof.  Clay), 
who  is  designated  as  of  the  Shashi  dynasty,  we  have  Assyrian 
kings  acting  under  special  names  (as  Pulu  and  Ulula)  as 
governors  of  Babylonia  or  appointing  the  crown  prince  (as 
Sargon  and  Sennacherib),  or  high  officials  until  the  destruc- 
tion of  Babylon  by  Sennacherib  in  689  B.C.,  after  which  Assyrian 
kings  themselves  assume  direct  control  with  the  exception  of 
668-648  B.C.,  during  which  Shamash-shumukin  appointed  by 
his  brother  Ashurbanapal,  king  of  Assyria,  is  in  command. 

4  Perhaps  the  son  of  Nebo-shum-ukin — if  the  line  in  the 
Babylonian  chronicle  (King,  op.  cit.,  ii.,  p.  64 — rev.  3)  is  to  be 
restored  accordingly. 


442  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Years 
Sennacherib  (s)  (  2)  704-702  B.C. 

Marduk-zakirshum'  (one  month       ) 


Marduk-paliddin  II. 

(nine  months)  ) 

Bel-ibni 

(3) 

702-700  B.C. 

Ashur-nadinshum  (son  of 

Sennacherib  k.  of  Assyria) 

(  6) 

699-694  B.C. 

Nergal-ushezib 

(iK) 

693-692  B.C. 

Mushezib-Marduk 

(4) 

692-689  B.C. 

Sennacherib^ 

(8) 

688-681   B.C. 

Esarhaddon 

(12) 

680-669  B.C. 

Shamash-shumukin 

(20) 

668-648  B.C. 

Kandalanu  (in  conjunction 

with  Ashurbanapal) 

647-626  B.C. 

Ashur-etil-ilani 

625- 

Rulers  of  Assyria^ 
Ushpia 

^  Two  pretenders  in  his  short  and  evidently  disturbed  reign 
are  Marduk-bel-u-she[zib  (?)],  and  Marduk-balatsu-[ikbi  (?)] 
See  King,  op.  ciL,  iii.,  p.  65. 

2  According  to  the  Babylonian  chronicle,  however,  an  in- 
terregnum of  8  years  (Schradcr,  Keilinschrijtliche  Bibliothek,  ii., 
p.  280,  and  iii.,  28).  Within  this  period,  perhaps,  a  certain 
Erba-Marduk,  s.  of  Marduk-shakinshum  and  other  aspirants 
whose  rule  was  not  subsequently  recognized  are  to  be  placed. 
(See  King,  op.  cit.,  ii.,  p.  66,  note  2.) 

3  Patesis  up  to  about  1500  B.C.,  though  later  rulers,  not  dis- 
tinguishing sharply  between  patesi  and  sharru  (king),  occasionally 
use  sharru  when  referring  to  rulers  before  this  date. 

The  chronology  of  Assyria  beyond  1500  B.C.  is  still  quite 
uncertain.  Through  the  inscriptions  at  Kalah-Shergat  (Ashur) 
many  new  names  of  patesis  have  been  ascertained,  but  the 
sequence  is  not  clear  in  all  cases,  and  there  are  still  gaps  of  un- 
certain length  to  be  filled  out.  I  have  not  included  in  the 
above  list  a  certain  Enlil-bani,  s.  of  Adasi,  whom  Esarhaddon, 


Chronological  Lists  443 

Kikia 

Kate-Ashir,  c.  2100  B.C.  (?) 
Shalim-Akhum  (s) 

Ilu-shuma — contemporary  of  Sumu-abu,  k.  of  Baby- 
lonia (c.  2060-2047  B.C.) 
Irishum  (or  Erishum)  (s)-i59  years ^  before  Shamshi- 

Adad  L,  i.e.  c.  2030  B.C. 
Ikunum  (s.) 
Shar-kenkate-Ashir 
*Enlil-Kapi 

*Shamshi-Adad  I.^  (s) — 580  years  before  Shalmaneser 

I.,  i.e.  c.  1870  B.C. 
Ishme-Dagan  I. 

Shamshi-Adad    II.    (s)-64i    years    before    Ashurdan 
I.,  k.  of  Assyria,  i.e.  c.  1820  B.C. 

680-666  B.C.,  mentioned  as  his  remote  ancestor  and  to  whom 
he  gives  a  royal  title.  (Schrader,  Keilinschriftliche  Bihliothek, 
ii.,  p.  120).  The  specific  manner  in  which  Esarhaddon  speaks 
of  this  personage  warrants  us  in  believing  that  Bel-ibni  was  really 
his  ancestor.  The  statement  that  the  latter  was  an  actual 
ruler  over  Assyria  is  open  to  the  suspicion  of  being  an  invention 
by  the  king  to  justify  his  dynasty,  which  we  know  begins  with 
Sargon,  his  grandfather.  Until  the  name,  therefore,  is  found 
in  an  inscription  of  Assyria  it  is  better  to  leave  the  name  out 
of  any  provisional  list. 

^  So  according  to  a  statement  of  Shalmaneser  I.,  while  according 
to  Esarhaddon  126  years. 

2  There  may  be  a  third  Shamshi-Adad  son  of  Enlil-Kapkapi 
(Rawlinson,  i.,  PI.  6,  No.  i)  in  this  early  period  who  might  be 
the  ruler  of  that  name  mentioned  in  a  legal  document  (Ranke, 
Babylonian  Legal  and  Business  Documents  fron  the  Time  of  the 
First  Dynasty  of  Babylon,  No.  260  bv.  12.)  as  contemporary  with 
Hammurapi  {i.e.  c.  1950),  but  that  is  uncertain;  and  it  is  not 
likely  that  a  patesi  of  Assyria  should  be  mentioned  in  a  Baby- 
lonian document.  It  is  more  likely  that  Enlil-kapkapu  is 
identical  with  Enlil-kapi. 


444  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 


Ishme-Dagan  II. 
Ashir-nirari  I. 


Ashir-rabi  I.,  C.  1475  B.C. 

Ashir-nirari  II.     (s) 

Ashir-rim-nisheshu — (s) — contemporary    with   Kara- 
indash.  k.  of  Babylonia,     (c.  1430  B.C.) 
Puzur-Ashur — contemporary  with  Bur-naburiash 

C.  B.C.   1390 

Ashur-nadinakhi 
Erba-Adad  (s) 

Ashur-ubalHt   (s)    c.   1370-43  B.C. — father-in-law    of 

Kara-khardash,  k.  of  Babylonia. 

Enlil-nirari   (s) — contemporary  with  Kuri-galzu  II., 

k.  of  Babylonia  (c.  1340  B.C.). 

Arik-den-ilu  (s) 

Adad-nirari    I.    (s) -contemporary  with   Nazi-marut- 
tash,  k.  of  Babylonia,  (c.  1320  B.c) 
Shalmaneser  I.^  (s) 

Tukulti-Ninib  I.  (s) — c.  600  years  before  the  conquest 
of  Babylon  (689  B.C.)  by  Sen- 
nacherib, k.  of  Assyria,  i.e.  c. 
1290  B.C.^) 
Tukulti-Ashur  (s) 

^  See  above  under  Shamshi-Adad  I. 

*  See  King,  Records  of  Tukulti-Ninib,  i.,  p.  60  seq.;  107  seq. 
Sennacherib  speaks  of  a  seal  of  Tukulti-Ninib,  once  the  property 
of  Shagarakti-shuriash,  of  the  Cassite  dynasty,  who  thus  turns 
out  to  be  the  contemporary  of  Tukulti-Ninib.  The  latter  con- 
quers Kash-tiliash  II.  and  brings  him  as  a  captive  to  Ashur. 
Subsequently  Tukulti-Ninib  is  killed  in  a  revolt  organized  by 
his  son  and  successor  {op.  cit.,  pp.  87,  97,  991). 


Chronological  Lists 


445 


Enlil-kudur-usur —    c.  1240  B.C. 


Ninib-paleshar. ' 

Ashurdan  I.^     (s)  c.  1185  B.c- 


Mutakkil-Nusku  (s). 
Ashur-reshishi  I.   (s) — 


Tiglath-pileser  I.  (s)- 


Ashur-bel-kala  (s) — 


contemporary  with 
Adad-nadinakhi, 
k.  of  Babylonia. 

contemporary  with 
Zamama-shumid- 
din,  k.  of  Babylo- 
nia; and  circa  60 
years  before  Tig- 
lath-pileser I.,  k. 
of  Assyria. 


contemporary  with 
Nebuchadnezzar 
I.,  k.  of  Babylo- 
nia, (c.  1 150  B.C.) 
1125-1100B.C.     Beginning  of 
reign  con- 
temporary 
with  Mar- 
duk-nadi- 
n  a  k  h  i — 
5th  k.  of 
I  sin  dy- 
nasty.^) 
contemporary  with 


'  Son  of  Erba-Adad  II.,  founder,  therefore,  of  a  new  dynasty. 

2  See  above  under  Shamshi-Adad  II. 

3  According  to  Sennacherib  (705-681  B.C.)  418  years  elapsed 
between  Tiglathpileser's  defeat  of  Marduk-nadinakhi  and 
Sennacherib's  conquest  of  Babylon  in  689  B.C.  (See  Schrader, 
Keilinschritfliche  Bihliothek,  ii.,  p.  118.  PI.  49-50.),  which  would 
therefore  make  Tiglathpileser  I.  still  reigning  in  1107  b.c. 


44^  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 


Marduk  -  shapik 
zer  -m  ati,  7th 
king  of  Isin  dy- 
nasty and  son- 
in-law  of  Adad- 
paliddin,  —  8th 
king  of  Isin  dy- 
nasty,  (c.   1085- 

1064  B.C.) 


Shamshi-Adad  III.  (b). 
Ashurnasirpal  I.  (s). 
Shalmaneser  II.  (s). 
Adad-nirari   II. 
Tiglath-pileser  II. 
Ashur-rabill. 
Ashur-reshishi  II.  (s). 
Tiglath-pileser  III.  (s). 
Ashurdan  II.  (s). 
Adad-nirari  III.  (s)  911-890 — 


Tukulti-Ninib^  II.  (s) 
Ashur-nasirpal  II.  (s)  883-859 
Shalmaneser  III."  (s)  858-824- 


contemporary  with 
Shamash-mudam- 
mik,  k.  of  Baby- 
lonia. 


contemporary  with 
Nebo-paliddin, 
k.  of  Babylonia 
(c.  888-854  B.C.). 


^  From  Tukulti-Ninib  II.  to  Ashurbanapal  we  have  lists  of 
Assyrian  Eponyms  in  several  copies.  From  Shamshi-Adad  IV.  to 
Shalmaneser  V.  we  have  the  fragments  of  another  list  of  Eponyms. 

2  See  Delitzsch,  in  Mitteilungen  der  Deutschen  Orient  Gesell- 
schaft,  No.  42,  p.  35  note. 


Chronological  Lists 


447 


Shamshi-Adad  I V.  ^  (s)  823-811 —  contemporary  with 

Marduk-balatsu- 
ikbi,  k.  of  Baby- 
lonia. 

Adad-nirari  IV.  (s)  810-782. 

Shalmaneser  IV.  (s)  781-772. 

Ashurdan  III.  (s)  771-754. 

Ashur-nirari  III.  (s)  753-746. 

Tiglathpileser  IV.  745-727 —  contemporary  with 

N  ebo-shumukin, 
k.  of  Babylonia 
(732  B.C.). 

Shalmaneser  V.  (s)  727-722  B.C. 

Sargon  721-706  B.c, 

Sennacherib  (s)  705-681  B.C. 

Esarhaddon  (s)  680-669  B.C. 

Ashurbanapal  (s). 

(Sardanapalos)  668-626  B.C. 

Ashur-etil-ilani  (s)  626-c.  618  B.C. 

Sin-shum-lishir  c.  618  B.C.,  who  is  followed  after  a 
short  reign  by  Sin-shar-ishkun,  the  brother  of 
Ashiir-etil-ilani.  See  Clay,  Babylonian  Expedition, 
viii.,  I,  p.  9. 

Sin-shar-ishkun  c.  616-606  B.C. 

(Destruction  of  Nineveh  606  B.C.) 

Rulers  of  Neo-Babylonian  Empire 

Nabopolassar  (also  last  governor  of 

Babylonia  under  Assyrian  control)  625-604  B.C. 
Nebuchadnezzar  II.  (s)  604-561  B.C. 

^  Suppresses  uprising  of  his  brother  Ashur-daninpal  that  had 
broken  out  during  the  closing  years  of  the  reign  of  Shalmaneser 
III.     (See  Schrader,  op.  cit.,  i.,  p.  176;  Col.  I.,  39-52.) 


448  Religion  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

Evil-Merodach  (s)^  561-560  B.C. 

Neriglissor  (brother-in-law)  559-556  b.c. 

Labosoarchod  (s)  -556  B.C. 

Nabonnedos.^  555-539  B.C. 

(Cyrus*  conquest  of  Babylonia  539  B.C.) 

Persian  Rulers  of  Babylonia^ 

Cyrus  539-529  B.C. 

Cambysses  (s)  529-522  B.C. 

Darius  I.  (Hystaspis)  522-486  B.C. 

Xerxes  I.  (s)  486-465  B.C. 

Artaxerxes  I.  (Longimanus)  (s)  465-424  B.C. 

Xerxes  II.  (45  days.) 

Darius  II.  424-404  B.C. 

Artaxerxes  11.  (Mnemon)  (s)  404-359  b.c. 

Artaxerxes  III.  (Ochos)  (s)  359-338  b.c. 

Arses  (s)  338-33^  B.C. 

Darius  III.  (Codomanus)  336-331  b.c. 
(Alexander  the  Great  conquers  Babylonia  331  B.C.) 

^  More  properly  Amel-Marduk,  Nergal-shar-usur,  Labashi- 
Marduk,  Nebo-na'id.  I  give  the  more  familiar  forms  of  these 
four  names. 

2  His  son  Bel-shar-usur,  associated  with  his  father  in  the 
government  of  Babylonia,  is  the  famous  Belshazzar  of  the  Book 
of  Daniel. 

3  I  have  omitted  the  numerous  pretenders  like  Gaimiata, 
Nebuchadnezzar  III.,  etc.,  mentioned  in  the  Behistun  inscription 
of  Darius  I.  and  elsewhere. 


INDEX 


Abel,  289 

Abraham,  28,  399 

Adab,  36 

Adad,  48,  105,  123,  125,  140, 
271,  307;  =  Hadad,  of  Amo- 
ritish  origin,  26,  1 17-120; 
storm-god,  38,  83,  103,  128, 
182,232,249;  "god  of  divi- 
nation," 96,  120,  165,  297; 
=  Ramman,  117;  =  Mar-Tu, 
117;  Anu- Adad  temple,  118, 
292;  counterpart  of  Enlil, 
120;  eleventh  month  asso- 
ciated with,  238 

Adad-nirari  IV.,  King  of  As- 
syria, 99 

Adam,  357,  367 

Adapa  legend,  366;  parallel 
to  "tree  of  life"  story, 
367  seq. 

Adar  =  12th  month,  238.  See 
Month. 

Adon,  a  title  of  Tammuz, 
q.  V. 

Adonis,  Tammuz- Adonis  myth, 
see  Tammuz. 

Agade,  18,  19,  36,  175,  293, 
294;  early  stronghold  of 
Semites,  11;  capital  of  Ak- 
kad,  21;  capital  of  Sargon, 
22 ;  yields  to  Kish,  24 

Agriciilture,  405  seq.;  in  early 
Babylonia,  17;  factor  in  es- 
tablishing pantheon,  64  seq., 
114;  in  Palestine,  288  seq. 

Ahriman,  60,  252 

Ahura-Mazda,  60,  252 


Akabi-ilu,  381,382,383 

Akhula-galla,  a  quarter  of 
Borsippa,  380 

Akkad,  =  northern  Babylonia, 
3,  23,  25,  31,  356;  kings  of, 
21;  one  of  "four  regions," 
24,  235  seq.;  months  assigned 
to,  in  omens,  219;  section 
of  ecliptic  assigned  to,  228 
seq.;  represented  by  side 
of  moon,  235,  239;  repre- 
sented by  Jupiter,  236;  days 
assigned  to,  237 

Akkadians  =  Semites,  5 

Aldebaran,  see  Stars. 

Aleppo  =  Hallab,  36 

Alexander  the  Great,  34,  62, 
255,  259 

Ali,  108 

Allatu,  consort  of  Nergal,  368. 
See  Ereshkigal. 

Ama-Ushum-Gal  =  Tammuz, 
q.  v.,  346 

Amorites,  22,  43,  235;  in- 
fluence on  Sumero- Akkadian 
culture,  25  seq.;  ethnic 
character,  29  seq.;  Amoritish 
elements  in  Assyria,  41 ; 
migration,  1 18;    home,  120 

Amos,  418 

Amurru,  12,  76;  claimed  by 
Sargon,  22;  one  of  "four 
regions,"  24,  235  seq.;  in- 
fluence on  Babylonia,  26; 
=  Mar-Tu,  76,  117;  months 
assigned  to,  in  astrology,  2 19; 
section  of  ecliptic  assigned 
to,  228  seq.;  represented 
by    division   of   full    moon, 


449 


450 


Index 


Amurru — Continued 

235,     239;     right     horn     of 
crescent  assigned  to,  239 

Anatomy,  153,  190,  197.  See 
Liver,  Blood 

Ancestor  worship,  363 

Andrae  W.,  118,  281,  292,  293 

Animism,  64,  66,  67,  252, 
265  seq.;  animistic  stage 
long  past  in  Babylonia, 
14,  63;  animistic  concep- 
tions connected  with  Ashur, 

51 

Annunaki,  35,  37,  72,  307,  389 
An-shar  =  Ashur,  q.  v. 
Antum,  consort  of  Anu,  125 
Anu,  35,  37,  38,  48,  82,  87,  88, 
90,  100,  105,  119,  121,  125, 
137,  140,  232,  246,  247,  269, 
304,  366,  367;  patron  deity 
of    Uruk,    36,    40;    becomes 
abstraction,  god  of  heaven, 
36;  father  of  Enlil,  81,  84; 
position    in    pantheon,    81, 
367;    sun-god,    83,    86,    98, 
loi,  106,  122,  128;  as  crea- 
tor,    85,     136;     father     of 
Ishtar,   115,   129;  father  of 
the    gods,    116;    Anu-Adad 
temple,     118,     292;     father 
of  all  planets,  130;    ecliptic 
"path"   of,   228   seq.\  Anu- 
Enlil    series,    236,  246    seq.; 
first  month  associated  with, 
237.    See  Triad. 
Aphrodite,  132,  349 
Apil-adduamara,  381,  383 
Apil-addunadin,  380,  381,  383, 

384 

Apsu,  87 

Arabia,  12,  17,  24 

Arabians,  135 

Arabs,  divination  among,  144; 
greet  new  moon,  214,  336; 
festival  in  month  of  pil- 
grimage, 325 

AraW,  usual  name  of  nether 
world,  q.  v. 

Aramaeans,  43 


Aramaic  bowl  inscriptions,  294 

Arbela,  Ishtar  of,  128 

Architecture,  16,  56  seq.',  of 
palace,  16;  of  Assyria,  54; 
plan  and  construction  of 
temple,  281  seq.;  construc- 
tion of  zikkurat,  282  seq.; 
survival  of  Babylonian  types, 
291  seq.;  plan  of  Solomon's 
temple,  292  seq.;  foreign  in- 
fluence in  Assyrian  temple, 
2gT,;  tombs,  see  Burial.  See 
Temple. 

Archives,  see  Temple. 

Art,  16;  advance  due  to  Sar- 
gon's  conquests,  23;  Hittite 
influence,  29,  140;  Assyrian, 
54;  sacred  street,  tiles,  57; 
bull,  75;  arts  invented  by 
Ea,  89;  figurines  of  Ishtar, 
136  seq.;  representations 
of  exorcising  rites,  317.  See 
Sculpture,  Seal  cylinders. 

Aruru,  fashioner  of  mankind, 

.  85,  357 

Ashipu,  see  Priests. 

Ashir  =  Ashur,  q.  v. 

Ashtart,  mother-goddess  of 
Phoenicians,  131;  cult  in 
Cyprus,  132;  rites  in  honour 
of,  139 

Ashtoreth=  Ashtart,  131 

Ashur,  capital  of  Assyria,  28, 
121,  273,  283,  293;  various 
cults  in,  53;  Anu-Adad 
temple,  118,  292;  excava- 
tions, 27  seq.,  118,  281  seq.; 
antiquity  of  settlement,  119; 
= Assyria,  235 

Ashur,  patron  deity  of  city 
Ashur,  41;  chief  deity  of 
Assyrians,  41,  50,  105,  124, 
128,  135,  232;  rival  to 
Marduk,  41;  attempt  to 
centralise  worship  around, 
50;  as  solar  deity,  51,  52, 
121  seq.;  his  symbol,  51,  122; 
protector  of  armies,  50,  52, 
53,  122,  123,  134;  Spiritual 


Index 


451 


Ashur — Continued 

phase,  52,  54,  122;  mono- 
theistic tendencies,  52 ; 
myths  transferred  to,  53;  as 
creator,  53,  136;  replaces 
Anu  in  Assyria,  121;  ety- 
mology, 121;  head  of  Assy- 
rian pantheon,  122  seq.; 
month  associated  with,  238 

Ashurbanapal,  King  of  Assy- 
ria, 45,  46,  47,  49,  53,  54, 
123,  135.  136,  205,  294,  295, 
328,  336,  359;  library,  46 
seq.,  54,  96,  159  seq.,  169, 
181,  242,  246,  279  seq.,  296, 
342,  389;  his  plan  for 
Nineveh,  50 

Ashurnasirpal,  King  of  Assyria, 

43.  44 

Asia  Minor,  28,  42,  141,  192, 
195,  260 

Assyria,  gradual  extension  of 
Semites  toward,  11;  rise  of, 
41;  Hittite  and  Amoritish 
elements,  41;  checks  Cas- 
sites,  42;  Hittites  as  chief 
adversary,  42;  fall  of,  45; 
assumes  control  of  Baby- 
lonia, 47;  influence  of  image- 
less  worship,  51;  military 
genius  of,  52 ;  decline,  54  seq. ;  , 
popularity  of  Nebo  cult,  99; 
Greek  influence,  253;  idea 
of  sanctuary,  265  seq.;  ac- 
tivity in  building  temples, 
272  seq.,  293;  legal  proce- 
dure, 274  seq.',  foreign  in- 
fluence on  temple  plan,  293; 
burial  customs,  360  seq.\ 
conditions  far  from  ideal, 
408  seq. 

Astarte  =  Ashtart. 

Astral-mythology,   413    seq. 

Astral-theology,  414 

Astrology,  58,  96,  108,  114, 
116,  192,  206;  supplanted  by 
astronomy,  62,  253;  con- 
nected especially  with  Sin, 
113,  115,  130,211  seq.;  plan- 


ets and  stars  as  offspring  of 
moon,  115;  length  of  month, 
115;  astrological  triad,  see 
Triad;  planets  as  children 
of  Anu,  130;  branch  of 
involuntary  divination,  147; 
hdril,  diviner  of  heavens, 
164,  190;  antiquity,  207, 
213;  fundamental  factor, 
207  seq.\  theory,  209  seq., 
232,  233,  234;  system  of 
interpretation,  210,  214,  219 
seq.,  221,  227,  233  seq., 
^2>7f  239,  245  seq.;  survival 
of  system,  211,  258;  among 
Greeks,  211,  227,  234,  243, 
255  seq.;  in  Middle  Ages, 
211,  258,  263;  phenomena 
observed,  212  seq.,  216,  239; 
texts,  213,  215,  218,  219, 
220,  223,  226,  232,  235, 
236,  245  seq.,  298;  system, 
when  perfected,  218  seq.; 
dependence  on  hepatoscopy, 
222;  divisions  of  ecliptic, 
228  seq.,  234  seq.;  omens  of 
ecliptic,  229;  system,  231 
seq.;  connected  with  me- 
teorological phenomena,  231 
seq.;  Anu-Enlil  series,  236, 
246  seq.;  relation  to  public 
welfare,  240  seq.,  297  seq.; 
relation  to  individual,  240 
seq.,  243  seq.,  256  seq. ;  among 
Romans,  243,  259  seq.;  ge- 
nethlialogy,  243, 262 ;  decline 
in  Orient,  251  seq.,  260; 
degeneration  in  Occident, 
259  seq.;  modern,  262  seq.; 
zikkurat  in  astrological  sym- 
bolism, 286.  See  also  Planets, 
Moon,  Sun,  Stars,  Omens. 
Astronomy,  96,  213,  215;  at- 
tached to  astrology,  58; 
displaces  astrology,  62,  253; 
becomes  a  genuine  science, 
61,  253,  260;  length  of 
month,  115,  213;  hdrH 
priests     as    originators     of, 


452 


Index 


Astronomy — Continued 

190;  early  empirical  charac- 
ter, 220;  zodiac,  229  seq.; 
modern  nomenclature  de- 
pendent on  Babylonian  as- 
trology, 230  seq.;  among 
Greeks,  231,  255  seq.;  ad- 
vance in,  251  seq.;  zik- 
kurats  not  observatories,  285; 
"bit  tamarti,"  observatory, 
286 

Asushu-namir,  counterpart  of 
"Tammuz,  371 

AtaM,  see  Eclipse. 

Athtar,  south-Arabic  equiva- 
lent of  Ishtar,  131 

Atonement,  ritual,  see  Lameii- 
tation;  Jewish,  324,  341 ; 
Babylonian,  325 

Attis,  350 

Augur,  194,  199 


Baal,  131;  Jahweh  assumes 
attributes  of  Baals,  74; 
Canaanite  Baals  personifi- 
cations of  sun,  75 

Babbar=  Shamash,  80,106,  108 

Babel,  Tower  of,  3,  282,  284, 
288  seq. 

Babylon,  early  stronghold  of 
Semites,  1 1 ;  seat  of  Marduk 
cult,  19,  37;  founded  or 
enlarged  by  Sargon,  22; 
yields  to  Sargon,  23;  capital 
of  Hammurapi's  empire,  38; 
destroyed  by  Sennacherib, 
44  seq.;  excavations,  45,  341 ; 
shrines  to  other  gods  in 
Marduk  temple,  48,  95; 
source  of  Ashurbanapal's 
library,  48,  96;  restoration, 
56;  sacred  street,  57,  341; 
capture  by  Cyrus,  59;  tem- 
ple of  Marduk,  Esagila,  93, 
269,  274;  foundation  and 
naming,  94;  New  Year's 
ceremonies,  104,  341 


Babylonia,  cities  of  ^  south 
oldest,  2;  course  of  civilisa- 
tion south  to  north,  2,  94; 
mixed  races,  4  seq.;  early 
conditions,  12  seq.;  early 
religious  stage,  14,  63;  agri- 
culture and  commerce,  17, 
64;  invaded  by  Cassites,  42; 
literature  of  religious  char- 
acter, 47;  survives  Assyria, 
5p;  =Sumer  and  Akkad,  56; 
civilisation,  58;  decline  of 
neo-Babylonian  empire,  59; 
decay  of  religion,  61,  253; 
influence  of  Greek  culture, 
62,  253;  idea  of  sanctuary, 
265  seq.;  legal  procedure, 
274  seq.;  idea  of  life  after 
death  parallel  to  Greek 
idea,  355;  burial  customs, 
360  seq.;  conditions  far  from 
ideal,  408  seq..  See  also 
Euphrates  Valley,  Sumer, 
Akkad 

Bagdad,  291 

Barton,  George  A.,  131,  376 

Bdril,  see  Priests. 

Bau=  Gula,  q.  v.,  consort  of 
Ningirsu,  340 

Behrens,  E.,  298 

Beirut,  44 

Bel,  see  Marduk,  Enlil. 

Belit-seri,  see  Geshtin-Anna. 

Benares,   19 

Bennett,  Ellen,  227 

Berosus,  89,  256,  364 

Bethel,  74,  267 

Bezold,  Carl,  47,  57 

Bible,  see  Hebrews. 

Blecher,  193,  194 

Blood,  identified  with  life,  150, 
151;  circulation,  151 

Boghaz-Keui,  centre  of  Hittite 
power,  28,  191 

Boissier,  Alfred,  181 

Bonnet,  157 

Borneo,  150 

Borsippa,  36,  70,  95,  98,  250, 
269,    272,     283,    296,    321, 


Index 


453 


Borsippa — Continued 

380,  381,  383;  shrines  to 
other  gods  in  Nebo  temple, 
48;  source  of  Ashurbanapal's 
library,  48,  96;  restoration, 
56;  seat  of  Nebo  cult,  57, 
341 ;  older  than  Babylon,  94; 
temple  school,  96;  zikkurat, 
57,  282,  287;  New  Year's 
procession,   341 

Bouche-Leclercq,  A.,  257,  264 

Boundary  stones,  359  seq.,  381, 
385;  symbol  of  gods  on, 
96,  174.385 

Brain   as   seat   of    soul,     149, 

150,. 153.  154 

Buddhism,  352 

Budge,  E.  A.  W.,  362 

Bull,  see  Enlil. 

Bunanit,  380  seq. 

Burial,  places,  107  seq.,  286, 
294;  importance  of  proper 
burial,  358  seq.;  customs, 
360  seq.     See  Dead 

Burnaburiash,  295 

Bur-Sin,  son  of  Dungi,  30 

Business,  documents,  17,  277, 
325*  378  seq.,  404;  transac- 
tions, merchant  and  agent, 
407.     See  also  Temple. 


Caaba  as  "house    of  Allah," 

267 
Cain,  289 
Calah,    residence   of   Assyrian 

kings,   53 
Calendar,  253,  344;  regulated 

by  moon,  115;  age  of,  213. 

See  also  Month,  Day. 
Canaan,  rites  to  mother  god- 
dess, 139;  Hittitesin,  140 
Canaanites,   29,    74,    75,   289; 

mother     goddess     of,     131; 

practice  of  "passing  through 

fire,"  315 
Carthage,  141 
Cassites,  34,  43,  54*  69,  201, 


295;  control  of  Euphrates 
Valley,  42;  divination  tab- 
lets, 165 

Castor  and  Pollux,  see  Stars. 

Ceremonies,  see  New  Year's 
day,   Hepatoscopy. 

Chaldea,  rise  of,  55;  decline,  59 

Chaldean  :i=  diviner,  impostor, 
199.  259 

Chipiez,  75 

Chronicles,  official,  176 

Civilisation,  result  of  mixed 
ethnic  elements,  4.  SeeEw- 
phratean  civilisation 

Clay,  A.  T.,  26,  29,  68,  76,  117, 
271 

Climate  as  factor  in  religion, 
66,  71,  107 

Colophons,  96 

Combe,  E.  T.,  112,  336,  337 

Commerce,  Babylonian,  17, 
55»  396,  as  factor  in  deter- 
mining pantheon,  64  seq.; 
commercial  transactions, 
276;  in  Palestine,  289;  regu- 
lations in  Hammurapi's 
Code,  403  seq. 

Concubine,  see  Marriage. 

Constellations,  see  Stars. 

Copernicus,  258 

Cos,  256 

Cosmology,  192 

Creation  myths,  85,  415  seq.; 
versions,  loi  seq.;  myth  of 
Eridu,  87;  myth  transferred 
to  Marduk,  100;  Biblical 
story,  415  seq. 

Cult,  86,  105;  centralising 
tendency,  48 ;  combination 
of  cults,  89-91;  of  Marduk 
traced  back  to  Eridu,  93 
seq.;  solar  cults,  106,  iii — 
see  Shamash;  moon  cult, 
112  seq. — see  Sin;  influence 
of  Zoroastrianism  on,  60, 
200;  official  character,  408. 
See  Incantation,  Lamentation 
Purification,  Hymns,  Fes- 
tivals, Ancestor  worship. 


454 


Index 


Culture,  result'of  mixed  ethnic 
elements,  4;  Babylonian ,_ — 
Amorite  and  Hittite  in- 
fluence on,  25  seq.;  Persian 
influence  on,  59  seq. 

Cumont,  Franz,  141,  243 

Cuneiform  script,  6-10;  syl- 
labary, 6,  279;  syllabary, 
Semitic  elements  in,  7;  pho- 
netic writing,  7  seq.\  origin 
and  development,  8  seg^. 

Cuthah,  36,  45,  48,  107,  296; 
seat  of  Nergal  cult,  15,  18, 
106,  no,  224;  yields  to 
Sargon,  23;  taken  by  Sen- 
nacherib, 45;  early  Sumer- 
ian  settlement,  106;  name 
of  nether  world,  107,  354, 
368 

Cybele,  see  Kybele 

Cyprus,  132 

Cyrus,  34,  59,  61,  109,  166, 
200 


Damascius,  67,  68 

Damkina,  consort  of  Ea,  125 

Damu=Tammuz,  q.  v.,  346 

Dan,  74 

David,  145 

Days,  assigned  to  different 
countries,  237 

Dead,  mutilation  of,  360.  See 
Burial 

Deborah,  song  of,  73 

Deluge  story,  88,  89,  136,  238, 
355»  364*  415  seq.;  Biblical, 
364,  415  seq. 

Demons,  39,  91,  247,  328,  373; 
incantations  against,  294, 
299;  classification  and  de- 
scription, 309  seq.,  372  seq.; 
etimmu,  utukku,  309,  362; 
home  of,  310,  354;  methods 
of  exorcising,  314  seq.;  with 
Nergal,  369 

Dietrich,  Albrecht,  127 

Dilbat=planet  Venus,  q.  v.,  36 


Diodorus  Siculus,  223 

Divination,  gods  of, — Shamash 
and  Adad,  96,  120,  165,  297; 
astrological,  see  Astrology; 
voluntary,  definition  and 
examples,  144  seq.;  see  Liver, 
Hepatoscopy;  involuntary, 
144,  202  seq.,  205;  definition 
and  examples,  145,  146,  202 
seq.;  see  Astrology;  prompted 
by  desire  to  know  future, 
1431  by  oil  and  water,  146, 
201  seq.;  handbooks  of,  202; 
official  character,  177  seq., 
204,  205  seq.;  relation  to 
individual,  177  seq.,  20^  seq., 
243 ;  organs  inspected  among 
Greeks  and  Romans,  1^6 seq.; 
degeneration  of,  200  seq. 
See  Omens,  Dreams. 

Diviners,  see  Priests. 

Divorce,  398  seq.,  400.  See 
Marriage 

Doughty,  Charles,  336 

Dreams,  146,  204  seq.,  251; 
hdrii  as  interpreter  of,  205; 
god  of  (Zakar),  335;  Jacob's 
dream,  see  Jacob 

Duality  of  gods,  140;  sun  and 
storm,  Anu  and  Enlil,  90, 
118,  128;  water  and  sun,  Ea 
and  Marduk,  97;  sun  and 
storm,  Nebo  and  Marduk 
97;  sun  and  storm,  Ninib 
and  Enlil,  118,  128;  sun 
and  storm,  Shamash 
and  Adad,  118,  128;  sun 
and  storm,  Anu  and  Adad, 
118;  male  and  female  prin- 
ciple: Tammuz  and  Ishtar, 
128,  Gilgamesh  and  Ishtar, 
128;      Ashur     and     Ishtar, 

135 

Dul-Azag,  see  Temple. 
Dumu-Zi  (-Abzu)  =    Tammuz, 

q.  V. 
Dungi,  son  of  Ur-Engur,  30, 

356 
Durilu,  35 


Index 


455 


Ea,  35.  38,  41.  48,  53.  77.  90, 
loi,  105,  116,  119,  123,  125, 
140,  232,  246,  247,  269,  271 
303.  306,  311.  326,  364. 
370.  371.  387.  416;  water 
god,  37,  67,  91,  92,  97,  98, 
100,  133,  312;  patron  deity 
of  Eridu,  37,  39,  40,  67,  85, 
218;  cult  in  Assyria,  53; 
in  systematised  pantheon, 
81;  shar  Apsi,  87;  god  of 
humanity,  88,  355;  as  crea- 
tor, 88,  98,  136;  originator 
of  the  arts,  89;  =  Cannes,  89; 
god  of  canals,  93,  96,  102, 
133;  god  of  wisdom,  93, 
95;  symbolof,  93;  temple  of, 
93;  ecliptic  "path,"  228 
seq.;  second  month  assigned 
to,  237.     See  Triad 

Eabani,  see  Enkidu 

E-Anna,  see  Temple 

Eannatum,  patesi  of  Lagash, 
360 

E-Apsu,  see  Temple 

E-Babbar  =  E-Barra,  see  Tem- 
ple 

E-Barra,  see  Temple 

Eclipse  (atalu),  116,  213,  215, 
216,  237,  240,  253,  255,  298, 
333.  334.  335;  omens  of,  216 

Ecliptic,  see  Astrology,  Zodiac 

Edom,  73 

E-Gan-Nun-Makh ,  see  Tem- 
ple 

Egypt,  4,  43,  46,  74,  103,  259, 
260;  Nebuchadnezzar's  ex- 
pedition, 56;  Osiris-Isis 
story,  350;  burial  customs, 
362 

E-Khul-Khul,  see  Temple 

E-Kishirgal,  see  Temple 

E-Kur,  see  Temple 

E-Kur-Bad,  a  name  of  Nether 
world  g.  V. 

Elam,  23,  30,  33,  46,  59,  69, 
135,    169.     175.    359;    con- 


quered by  Sargon,  22;  one 
of  "four  regions,"  24,  235; 
conquered  by  Hammurapi, 
32;  treaty  with  Chaldea,  56; 
months  assigned  to  in  omens, 
219;  on  ecliptic,  228;  repre- 
sented by  side  of  full  moon, 
235.  239;  represented  by 
left  horn  of  crescent,  239 

Elamites,  23,  135,  175;  over- 
throw Ur  dynasty,  31 

Ellil,  see  Enlil 

Elohim,    as   creator,    415    seq, 

Enbi-Ishtar,  ruler  of  Kish,  21 

E-Ninnu,  see  Temple 

En-ki  =  Ea,  90 

Enkidu,  companion  of   Gilga- 

mesh,357,358,374 
Enhl,  20,  23,  35,  41,  48,  53, 
76,  87,  94,  100,  loi,  102,  103, 
105,  116,  120,  132,  136,  140, 
174,  224,  232,  242,  247,  271, 
277,  294,  322,  326,  329,  337, 
339.  356,  369;  patron  deity 
of  Nippur,  15,  18,  36,  40,  67, 
68,  218;  storm  god,  15,  37, 
68,  77,  78,  83,  84,  88,  89,  90, 
91,  98,  118,  124,  128,  133, 
134,  182;  Ellil,  18;  title  hil, 
19,  100;  theoretical  head  of 
pantheon,  19,  37,  79,  80, 
86,  122;  practically  replaced 
by  Marduk,  19,  39;  lord  of 
heaven  and  earth,  35,  91; 
superimposed  attributes  of, 
37,  70  seq.,  79;  "lord  of 
lands,"  38,  102,  387;  cult  in 
Assyria,  53;  etymology,  68; 
as  mountain  god,  69  seq.,  28^, 
304;  of  Sumerian  origin,  70; 
great  antiquity  of  cult,  71; 
compared  with  Jahweh,  72 
seq.;  as  bull,  74  seq.;  in 
systematised  pantheon,  81, 
83;  as  creator,  85,  98,  136; 
ecliptic  "path,"  228;  Anu- 
Enlil  series,  236,  246;  first 
month  assigned  to,  237.  See 
Triad 


456 


Index 


En-Mashtu,  see  Ninih 

Ennugi  =  Nusku,  88 

En-Zu  =  Sin,  q.  v. 

E-Pa,  see  Zikkurat 

Epping,  Joseph,  231 

Equinox,  vernal  =  New  Year's 
day,  g.  v.;  recession  of  equi- 
noxes, 255 

Ereshkigal,  consort  of  Nergal, 
224,  373;  mistress  of  nether 
world,  311,  368,  369,  370, 
372 

Eridu,  35,  88,  89,  90,  94,  97, 
109,  121,  218,  306,  339;  seat 
of  Ea  cult,  37,  39,  40,  67, 
85,  S-j,  218,  269;  temple  of 
Ea  at,  93;  home  of  Marduk 
cult,    108,    121 

Esagila,  see  Temple 

Esarhaddon,  King  of  Assyria, 
46,  53,  123,  135,  235,  295 

Ethics,  ethical  spirit  in  in- 
cantation ritual,  307  seq., 
377 ;  ethical  factors  in  idea  of 
life  after  death,  354  seq.,  363 
seq.,  368,  371  seq.,^  376;  ethi- 
cal factors  in  Biblical  stories, 
364,  368,  416  seq.\  in  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria,  377  seq., 
389  seq.,  409  seq.;  in  Ham- 
murapi's  Code,  391  seq. 

Etruria,  193 

Etruscans,  4,  198;  divination, 
145;  hepatoscopy,  192  seq., 
195;  eastern  origin, ^  195 

Euphratean  civilisation,  an- 
tiquity, 2 ;  course  from  south 
to  north,  2;  composite  char- 
acter, 4,  11;  Amorite  and 
Hittite  influences,  25  seq.-, 
zenith  in  reign  of  Ashur- 
banapal,  54;  in  time  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  58 ;  Per- 
sian influence,  59;  sur- 
vives fall  of  Nineveh  and 
Babylon,  61 ;  share  of  priests 
in,  201 

Euphrates,  66,  87,  132,  284; 
as  sacred  stream,  313 


Euphrates  Valley,  course  of 
civilisation  south  to  north, 
2,  121;  mixed  races,  4  seq.\ 
traditional  home  of  human 
race,  4;  earliest  inhabitants, 
5,  284;  early  strongholds, 
II,  18;  city  states,  12,  seq.\ 
union  of,  33,  218;  controlled 
by  Hammurapi,  33;  con- 
trolled by  Cassites,  42; 
Nabopolassar's  control  of, 
56;  "Chaldea"  of  classical 
writers,  56;  taken  by  Cyrus, 
59;  divorce  of  culture  from 
religion,  62;  Greek  elements 
in  culture,  62,  200  seq.; 
earliest  known  form  of  re- 
ligion already  past  animistic 
stage,  63  seq.;  climate,  66, 
71,  107;  culture  related  to 
that  of  Etruscans,  192;  in- 
fluence of  religion  on  that  of 
Hebrews,  412  seq. 

Europe,  258 

Evil  spirits,  see  Demons 

Excavations,  3;  Nippur,  13; 
Lagash,  13;  Ashur,  27;  Baby- 
lon, 45;  Nineveh,  47 

Exorciser,  306;  dshipu,  as 
priest,  302,  317;  mashmashuy 
"purifier,"  317 

Exorcism,  39,  92,  242,  303  seq.; 
methods  and  means,  3 1 4  seq. ; 
elaborate  ceremony,  316  seq. ; 
p  i  c  t  o  r  i  al  representations, 
317;  Azazel  ceremony,  324 
seq.  See  Purification,  In- 
cantation 

Expiatory  rites,  214,  241,  307, 
364;  =  Nam-Bur-Bi,  298, 
342 

Ezekiel,  348 

Ezida,  see  Temple 


Fasting,  39,  320,  324,  326 
Festival,    New    Year's,    Zag- 
Muk,  104,  130,  2,40 seq.;  cere- 


Index 


457 


Festival — Continued 

monies  symbolising,  130, 
340  seq.;  pattern  of  Jewish 
festivals,  341  seq. ;  of  harvest, 
343;  of  Tammuz,  343  seq.', 
as  popular  rite,  345,  349; 
spread  of,  348  seq. ;  Saturna- 
lia, 350;  Sacaea,  350 

Fisher,  C.  S.,  281 

Flood,  see  Deluge 

Folk-tales,  see  Myths 

Frank,  Carl,  317 

Fraser,  W.,  306" 

Frazer,  J.  G.,  177,  301,  349, 
350,  401 

Frontinus,  199 


Gal,  designation  of  a  foreign 
god,  103 

Galileo,  258 

Garstang,  John,  28 

Gautier,  J.  E.,  23 

Genethlialogy,  see  Astrology 

Geshtin-Anna-Belit-seri,  sister 
of  Tammuz,  346 

Gibil  =  Girru,  see  Purification 

Gilgamesh,  epic,  85,  127  seq., 
129,  136,  137,  238,  248,  357 
s^l-i  373  -^^S-/  as  solar  deit}^ 
127;  omens  associated  with, 
168,  219 

Girru,  fire  god,  97,  307,  312, 
315.  316 

Girsu,  a  section  of  Lagash, 
80 

Gish-Bar,  fire  god,  304,  312. 
See  Purification 

Gishkhu  =  Umma,  q.  v. 

Great  Bear,  see  Stars 

Greece,  4,  141,  195,  260; 
hepatoscopy,  193  seq.;  as- 
trology, 211,  227,  234,  243, 
255  seq.,  259  seq.;  astronomy, 
231.  255  seq.;  Tammuz- 
Adonis  myth,  349  seq.;  Ha- 
des  parallel   to   Aralii,    355 

Greek  influence,  62 :  on  divina- 


tion, 200;  on  astrology,  252, 
260;  on  Hebrew  beliefs,  352 

Gudea,  patesi  of  Lagash,  24,54, 
80,  164,  166,  204,  284,  286 

Gula  =  Bau,  consort  of  Ninib, 
125,  130,  271,  340 

Guti,  yields  to  Sargon,  22; 
months  assigned  to,  in  as- 
trological system,  219;  one 
of  "four  regions,"  235 


H 


Hadad,  see  Adad 

Hades,  355 

Hafiz,  376 

Hagar,  399 

Halevy,  Joseph,  6,  7 

Hallab  =  Aleppo,  36 

Hammurapi,  King  of  Baby- 
lon, 20,  41,  46,  48,  54,  58, 
77,  83,  86,  94,  100,  109,  134, 
191,  201,  217,  218,  235,  248, 
249,  273,  275,  293,  295, 
373 »  409;  conquests,  32,  33; 
unites  north  and  south,  33; 
code,  33-36,  III,  274,  276, 
379.  386,  391-408 

Hanging  Gardens,  56  seq. 

Hannibal,   193 

Harper,  Robert  Francis,  34, 
205,  276,  379 

Harran,  seat  of  cult  of  moon- 
god,  67,  112,  113,  114,  166 

Hartland,  E.  S.,  138 

Haruspex,  193 

Haupt,  Paul,  376 

Haynes,  J.  H.,  13,  14,  281 

Heart,  as  seat  of  soul,  149,  150, 
153.  154.  197;  as  seat  of 
intellect,  151,  196;  divina- 
tion by,  197  seq. 

Hebrews,  29,  34,  69,  72,  74, 
151,  196,  252,  253,  289,  292, 
324,  349,  400,  418;  mono- 
theism, 60,  105,  417;  rites 
of  mother-goddess,  138  seq.; 
divination,  145;  Shabbath, 
338;  ethical  factor  in  idea 


458 


Index 


Hebrews — Continued 

of  life  after  death,  365,  375; 
boundary  stones,  385.  See 
Law  codes.  Lex  talionis,  392 ; 
slavery,  403;  feeling  toward 
Babylonia  and  Assyria,  410 
seq.:,  influence  of  Assyro- 
Babylonian  religion  on,  412 
seq. ;  ethical  strain  in  Biblical 
stories,  364,  368,  416  seq. 
See  Lamentation 

Hekhal  =  tkallu,  268 

Hepatoscopy,  147  seq.,  191, 
202,  205;  theory  underlying, 
148  seq.,  155,  196,  207; 
sheep  as  victim,  156;  sys- 
tem and  methods,  156,  159 
seq.,  165  seq.,  191,  210; 
and  palmistry,  162;  high 
antiquity  and  duration,  163 
seq.,  166;  tablets  relating 
to,  159  seq.,  164,  167,  168 
seq.,  219;  elaborate  cere- 
monial, 165  seq.;  interpre- 
tation of  signs,  169  seq., 
175  seq.,  191,  218;  among  the 
Greeks,  172,  194  seq.-,  among 
the  Romans,  172,  193  seq.; 
official  character,  177  seq., 
204,  205,  240,  297;  specimen 
reports,  186  seq.;  as  origin 
of  study  of  anatomy,  190; 
as  link  between  East  and 
West,  190  seq.;  among  Hit- 
tites,  192;  among  Etrus- 
cans, 192  seq.;  factors  lead- 
ing to  decay  of,  195  seq., 
200  seq.;  dependence  of 
astrology  on,  222.  See 
Omens 

Herodotus,  138,  255 

Herzfeld,  E.,  291 

Heth,  "Sons  of,"   Hittltes,  28 

Heuzey,  Leon,  13,  75,  360 

Hilal,  see  Moon 

Hilprecht,  H.  V.,  13,  14,  47, 
278,  361 

Hinke,  W.  J.,  174,  385 

Hipparchus,  255 


Hittites,  25,  33,  43,  46,  195; 
invasion  of  Euphrates  Val- 
ley, 27;  influence  on  Baby- 
lonian religion  and  art,  28, 
29,  140;  "Sons  of  Heth,"  28; 
origin,  29;  Hittite  elements 
in  Assyria,  41 ;  chief  ad- 
versaries of  Assyrians,  42; 
mother-goddess,  131  seq., 
142;  hepatoscopy  among, 
191;  influence  on  temple 
architecture,  293 

Hogarth,  D.  G.,  195 

Hommel,  F.,  88 

Hosea,  418 

Houris,  138 

Hrozny,  F.,  1 10 

Hunger,  J.,  202 

Hydra,  see  Stars 

Hymns,  80,  85,  92,  242,  296; 
transferred  to  Marduk,  38; 
to  Enlil,  70;  to  Shamash, 
III  seq.,  399  seq.;  to  Sin, 
113,  114,  336  seq.;  peniten- 
tial, 196,  327  seq.,  2,42;  out- 
growth of  incantations,  300; 
official  character,  328 


Ibe-Sin,  King  of  Ur,  168,  219 
Iddin-Marduk,  380,  381,  382, 

383.  384 
Ideographs,  6  seq. 

Igigi.  35.  37.  304 

Ikischa-aplu,  380 

Immortality,  see  Life  after 
death.  Nether  world.  Island 
of  the  Blest 

Incantation,  58,  89;  formulas, 
91,  242,  299;  texts,  49,  92 
seq.,  278,  296,  303  seq.; 
Aramaic  bowls,  294;  as 
private  rite,  299  seq.,  313; 
as  public  rite,  300  seq.;  = 
shiptu,  300;  accompanied  by 
burning  of  image,  305 

Incantation  ritual,  39  seq.,  97, 
214,  248,  358,  372;  developed 
at  Eridu,  39;  adopted  into 


Index 


459 


Incantation  ritual — Continued 
Marduk  cult,  40,  48;  water 
and  fire  chief  factors,  97,  312 ; 
prayers  added,  301,  303  seq., 
306;  a  composite  production, 
305 ;  ethical  principles  intro- 
duced, 307  seq.,  S77i  accom- 
panying ceremonies,  309; 
elaborate  ceremony,  316  seq. 
See  Purification 

India,  19 

Innina,  15 

Irkallu,  one  of  the  names  of 
the  nether  world,  q.v. 

Irrigation,  87,  93,  96,  102,  133 

Isaiah,  61,  411,  418 

Ishakku,  see  Patesi 

Ishtar,  105,  140,  141,  142,  174, 
189,  205,  242,  271,  318,  326, 
334.  349;  (Nana)  of  Uruk, 
46,  67,  127,  218,  269;  Ashur's 
consort,  53,  128;  mother- 
goddess,  53,  124,  132,  136 
seq.;  identified  with  Venus, 
115,  117,  129,  132,  217,  232; 
daughter  of  moon,  also  of 
Anu,  115,  116,  130;  goddess 
of  earth,  117,  343;  in  Gil- 
gamesh  epic,  127  seq.,  357; 
associated  with  Tammuz, 
128,  343,  347;  of  Nineveh, 
of  Arbela,  128;  "Queen  of 
Kidmurru,"  129;  position  in 
pantheon,  129;  becomes  gen- 
eric term  "goddess,"  129; 
etymology,  131;  assumes  at- 
tributes of  gods,  132  seq.; 
Ishtar  of  battles,  133  seq.; 
goddess  of  love  and  passion, 
136  seq.;  sixth  month  asso- 
ciated with,  237;  descent  to 
nether  world,  347  seq.,  370 
seq.  See  Ashtart,  Athtar,  and 
Venus 

Ishtardti,  pi.  of  Ishtar  =  god- 
desses, 129 

Isin,  20,  32,  36,  321,  356;  be- 
comes political  centre,  31; 
sun-god  of,  80 


Isis,  350 

Islam,  see  Mohammedans 

Island  of  the  Blest,  355,  363, 

364 
Israel,  see  Hebrews 
Italy,  192 

J 

Jacob,  266,  290 

Jahweh,  50,  104,  139,  145,  261, 
266,  267,  275,  284,  288,  290; 
as  storm-god,  69,  283;  as 
mountain-god,  69,  120,  283; 
superimposed  attributes,  72 
seq.;  temple  in  Jerusalem 
(hekhal),  267,  268;  later 
ethical  conception  of,  365; 
Jahweh-Elohim,  367 

Jensen,  Peter,  85,  88,  231,  357, 
370 

Jeremiah,  411,  418 

Jeremias,  Alfred,  413 

Jeroboam,  74 

Jerusalem,  50,  151,  261,  285, 
324,  344,  410.     See   Temple 

Jesus,  418 

Jews,  61,  294,  418;  Jewish 
pilgrims,  285;  fasting  and 
lamentation,  324;  Atone- 
ment day,  324,  341;  service 
at  appearance  of  new  moon, 
336;  New  Year,  341;  burial, 
360;  court  of  law,  379; 
feeling  toward  Babylonia 
and  Assyria,  410  seq. 

Job,  332,  364 

Johns,  C.  H.  W.,  34,  378,  379, 
381 

Jonathan,  145 

Jowett,  Benjamin,  153 

Judah,  see  Hebrews 

Judea,  261 

Judges,  see  Law  codes,  Juris- 
prudence 

Jupiter,  219,  222,  287;  identi- 
fied with  Marduk,  217,  218, 
225,  226;  omens  of,  219; 
representing  Akkad,  236. 
See  also  Planets 


460 


Index 


Jurisprudence,  274  seq.,  378 
seq. ;  attached  to  oracles,  58 ; 
judges,  379  seg_.y  395  seq.\ 
courts,  379,  384,  407;  legal 
documents,  276,  378  seq., 
391 ;  omens  as  legal  decisions, 
275.  See  Law  code,  Temple, 
Priests 


K 


Kadesh,  73 

Kadi=  Tammuz,  q.v.,  346 

Kadishtu,    sacred    prostitute, 

138 
Kalah-Shergat=  Ashur,  q.v. 
Karppe,  S.,  342 
Kedesha,    sacred    defilement, 

139 

Kerbela,  108 

Kharis^,  380 

Khasis-atra,  364 

Kidmurru,  see  Ishtar 

King,  L.  W.,  8,  12,  22,  24,  83, 
102,  169,  334,  360,  384 

Kings,  titles :  "King  of  Sumer 
and  Akkad,"  3,  24,  31,  32, 
124;  "King  of  Akkad  and 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Enlil, " 
23;  "King  of  the  Four 
Regions,"  24,  25,  30,  31,  32, 
43,  124,  236;  "King  of 
Universal  Rule,"  24,  43, 
124;  "King  of  Babylon," 
32;  "King  of  Ass3^ria,"  124; 
"Lieutenant  of  Bel,"  124; 
divine  character,  15,  19,  24, 
268,  269,  356;  homage  to 
Enlil,  18;  official  reports  of 
omens,  165,  185  seq.,  200;  as 
priests,  269,  281;  as  judges, 
274;  religious  fervour,  293 
seq.;  part  in  lamentation 
ritual,  320  seq.,  333;  life 
after  death,  355  seq.;  temples 
dedicated  to,  356;  obedience 
to  law,  384  seq. 

Kish,  18,  22,  32,  36,  45  ,80,  106, 
168,    184,    293,    384;    early 


stronghold  of  Sumerians,  II, 
2 1 ;  early  Semitic  influences 
in,  21;  Agade  yields  to,  24; 
taken  by  Sennacherib,  45 

Ki-Uru,  see  Temple 

Knudtzon,  J.  A.,  297 

Kohanim,  see  Priests 

Kohler,  J.,  34,  277,  378 

Koldewey,  R.,  341 

Korte,  G.,  193 

Kouyunjik,  47 

Kudurru  =  boundary  stone, 
q.v. 

Kugler,  Franz,  19,  231,  356 

K3^bele,  mother-goddess  of 
Phrygia,  141,  350 


Labartu,  "gynecological"  de- 
mon, 310 

Lagash  (Telloh),  14,  36,  80, 
106,  271,  277,  283,  286,  340; 
early  stronghold  of  Sumer- 
ians, II,  21;  excavations,  13; 
yields  to  Sargon,  23;  smaller 
sanctuaries  at,  271;  seat  of 
worship  of  Ningirsu,  15, 
18 

Lamentation,  hjnuns,  70,  196, 
296,  300,  342,  345;  character 
of,  322  seq.;  Biblical  Lamen- 
tations, 323  seq.;  "Peniten- 
tial psalms,"  character  of, 
327  seq.;  "Penitential 
psalms,"  of  Tabi-utul-Enlil, 
331  seq.;  "Prayers  for  Lift- 
ing up  of  Hand,"  333  seq.; 
for  Tammuz,  345, 372 ;  ritual, 
38  seq.,  70,  242;  transferred 
to  Marduk,  38  seq.;  of  Nip- 
pur, pattern  for  other  places, 
39.  321.  326;  development 
from  taboo,  319  seq.;  as 
official  atonement  ritual,  320 
seq.,  345;  influence  of  Baby- 
lonian on  Hebrew,  324.  See 
Atonement 

Lang,  Andrew,  301,  350 


Index 


461 


Langdon,  Stephen,  72,  74,  77, 
80,  114,  212,  297,  300,  322, 

337.  346 

Larsa,  20,  32,  33,  35,  283,  287, 
289,  321,  322,  326,  356; 
seat  of  sun  cult,  67,  106,  108, 
109,  112;  early  Sumerian 
settlement,  106 

Law,  see  Jurisprudence 

Law  code,  of  Hammurapi,  33 
seq.,  Ill,  274,  276,  379,  386, 
391-408;  of  Moses,  34;  Pen- 
tateuchal  codes,  34,  163, 
172,  274,  275,  289,  392,  395; 
laws  as  decrees  of  Shamash, 
III;  Deuteronomic,  prohi- 
bits kedesha,  139;  legal  docu- 
ments, 276;  Priestly  code, 
261,  289,  319 

Layard,  A.  H.,  47 

Laz,  consort  of  Nergal,  271 

Lebanon,  73 

Legal  documents,  276.  See 
Law  codes 

Lehmann-Haupt,    C.  F.,  113, 

295 

Letters,  formula  of  greeting,  95 
Levites,  261.     See  also  Priests 
Libation,  in  exorcism,  316,  318; 
to  dead,  359.     See  Offerings, 
Sacrifice 
Life  after  death,  popular  con- 
ception, 351  seq.,  356,  358, 
365,   371    seq.;   ethical   con- 
siderations introduced,   354 
seq.;  parallel  to  Greek  idea, 
356;   importance  of   proper 
burial,  358  seq.;  absence  of 
ethical  factor,  363  seq.,  368, 
371  seq.,  376;  gods  opposed 
to     granting      immortality, 
366  seq.     See   Nether  world. 
Island  of  the  Blest,  Burial, 
Dead 
Litanies,  296 

Liver,  divination,  see  Hepato- 
scopy;  as  seat  of  soul,  149, 
seq.,  151,  153,  154,  155,  195, 
330;  description  of,  156  seq.^ 


171  seq.;  pathological  con- 
ditions, 159  seq.,  171  seq., 
178, 194;  clay  models  of,  191; 
bronze  model,  192 

Longinus,  416 

Lu-Bat,  see  Planets 

Lugal-Marada,  solar  god  of 
Marada,  80 

Lugalzaggisi,  Babylonian  ruler, 
81,  269 

Luz,  266 

M 

Machpelah,  28 
Macmillan,  K.  D.,  389 
Magan  =  Eastern  Arabia,  24 
Magic,  chief  element  in  early 

religion,    301 ;    sympathetic, 

306,307,314 
Magician,  see  Priests 
Manishfusu,  King  of  Kish,  384 
Manitius,  Walther,  43 
Marada,  sun-god  of,  80 
Marcellus,  193 
Marduk,  35,  70,  99,  105,  109, 

III,  125,  128,  167,  174,  189, 

191,  201,  226,  242,  250,  269, 

271,  277,  294,  306,  326,  329, 
387;  patron  deity  of  Baby- 
lon, 19,  37,  39,  87,  94; 
shrine  at  Nippur,  19;  actual 
head  of  pantheon,  19,  20,  38, 
57,  68,  79,  100,  103,  122,  217, 
218;  title  BU,  19,  38,  100; 
director  of  Triad,  37;  solar 
character,  37,  39,  78,  92, 
97,  106,  132;  receives  attri- 
butes of  great  gods,  19,  38, 
48,  77,  92,  100,  loi,  102,  134, 

272,  340;  tendencies  toward 
monotheism,  38,  52,  103; 
hymns  and  myths  trans- 
ferred to,  38-41,  48,  I 01; 
"lord  of  lands,"  38,  102; 
sun-god  of  spring,  39;  son 
of  Ea,  40,  87,  91 ;  fifty  names, 
40  seq.;  in  creation  legend, 
40;  shrines  to  other  gods  in 


462 


Index 


Marduk — Continued 

his  temple,  48,  271  seq.; 
cult  in  Ass^Tia,  53,  123; 
father  of  Nebo,  57,  341; 
temple  precinct  enlarged,  57 ; 
Cyrus  as  deliverer  of,  59; 
worship  weakened  byZoroas- 
trianism,  60;  shrine  at  Bor- 
sippa,  95;  as  creator,  98, 
136;  New  Year's  ceremonies, 
104,  341;  cult  originally  in 
Eridu,  108,  121;  identified 
with  Jupiter,  217,  218,  225, 
226;  eighth  month  asso- 
ciated with,  237;  as  exor- 
ciser,  303 

Marriage,  397  seq.;  contract, 
379.  397  seQ.]  monogamy, 
399;  concubine,  399 

Mars,  223,  287;  Nergal  iden- 
tified with,  108,  III,  224, 
225,  368;  =Lu-Bat,  221  seq.; 
omens  connected  with,  225; 
representing  Amurru  and 
Elam,  236 

Martin,  Frangois,  332 

Martu=  Amurru,  q.v.  See  also 
Ninib  =  En-Mash  tu 

Mashmashu,  see  Priests 

Mashtu,  see  Ninib  =  En- 
Mashtu 

Mater  dea,  see  Mater  magna 

Mater  magna  (Mater  dea), 
mother-goddess  of  Asia 
Minor,  141 

Mazdeism,  see  Zoroastrianism 

Mecca,  267 

Medes,  45 

Medicine,  151  seq.,  255,  258; 
attached  to  incantation,  58, 
299;  texts,  278 

Mediterranean,  22,  43,  260 

Meissner,  Bruno,  373 

Menant,  J.,  47 

Menelaos,  355 

Mercury,  223,  287;  =Lu-Bat, 
221  seq.,  227;  the  least  im- 
portant planet,  235  seq.; 
identified  with  Nebo,  226; 


in  Greek  astrology,  227; 
omens  of,  227 

Merkel,  157 

Mesopotamia,  27,  42,  259 

Meyer,  Eduard,  2,  8,  21,  27, 
31.  295 

Micah,  418 

Minaret,  see  Zikkurat 

Mitanni,  42;  branch  of  Hit- 
tites,  28;  sway  extended  to 
Assyria,  27;  influence  on 
Assyrian  proper  names,  28; 
control  of  Assyria,  28 

Mohammed,  138,  152,  248 

Mohammedans,  376;  burial, 
360;  Shiite  sect,  108 

Monotheism,  104  seq.;  Baby- 
lonian tendencies  toward,  38, 
103;  Assyrian  tendencies  to- 
ward, 52;  Zoroastrianism  as 
a,  60  seq.;  as  bond  of  sym- 
pathy between  Cyrus  and 
Jews,  61;  Hebrew  mono- 
theism, 105,  252,  417 

Montgomery,  J.  A.,  294 

Month,  see  Calendar;  length 
of,  115;  omens  connected 
with  different  months,  214, 
22 1 ,  227 ;  countries  connected 
with  different  months,  219, 
237;  months  associated  with 
certain  gods,  237  ^eg.;  middle 
of  =  shabbatum,  338 

Moon,  basis  of  astrological 
divination,  113,  211,  247; 
disappearance  at  end  of 
month,  116;  phenomena  ob- 
served, 212  seq.;  observa- 
tions, 213;  new  moon,  213 
seq.;  new  moon,  hildl,  214, 
336;  new  moon,  prayer  to, 
335  ■^^2-  5  iiGW  moon,  Jewish 
service  at  appearance,  336; 
full  moon,  213  seq.,  338 
seq.;  full  moon,  hymns  cele- 
brating, 339;  expiatory  rites 
at  disappearance,  214;  divi- 
sions of,  234,  239;  crescent, 
239;   crescent  compared  to 


Index 


463 


Moon — Continued 

a  bark,  336,  337;  prayers 
at  disappearance,  333  seg. 
See  Eclipse,  Sin 

Moon-god,  see  Sin,  Ur,  Harran 

de  Morgan,  Jacques,  23 

Morgenstern,  J.,  298,  307,  308, 
317-321 

Moses,  34,  275 

Mosul,  47 

Mother-goddess,  126  seq.;  con- 
sorts of  gods  become  forms 
of,  128;  spread  of  concep- 
tion, 131  seq.,  141  seq.;  rites, 
137  seq.;  mj^stic  interpre- 
tation, 140  seq.  See  IsJitar, 
Ashtart,  Hittites,  Kybele,  Ma- 
ter magna 

Mountain-god,  see  Adad,  Enlil, 
Teshup,  Jahweh,  Zeus 

Myths,  84,  85,  86;  transferred 
to  Marduk,  40,  100;  in 
Ashurbanapal's  library,  49; 
transferred  to  Ashur,  53; 
an  early  myth  of  Ninib  and 
Enlil,  78;  associated  with 
Nergal,  108;  associated  with 
Ninib,  no;  referring  to 
Adad,  117;  of  nature,  127 
seq.,  366,  416;  of  Ninib  and 
Gula,  130;  Tammuz  myth, 
128,  324,  344  seq.,  371  seq.; 
spread  of,  348  seq.;  Ishtar's 
descent,  347,  370  seq.;  Ner- 
gal's  usurpation  of  rule  of 
AraW,  369.  See  Gilgamesh, 
Adapa,  Creation,  Hebrews 


N 


Nabonnedos,  King  of  Baby- 
lon, 59,  99,  109,  166,  187, 
251,  294,  295,  380,  381, 

383 

Nabopolassar,  King  of  Baby- 
lon, 56,  99,  251,  295 
Nagar,  346 

Nahr-el-Kelb,  monuments,  44 
Nairi,  43 


Nam-Bur-Bi,  see  Expiatory 
rites 

Namtar,  god  of  pestilence,  311; 
messenger  of  Ereslikigal,369, 
370 

Nana,  see  Ishtar 

Nannar,  see  Sin 

Naram-Sin,  son  of  Sargon,  19, 
21,  25,  30,  164,  236,  356; 
monument,  23,  114;  divine 
attributes,  24,  114;  con- 
quests, 24;  "King  of  the 
Four  Regions,"  24,  236; 
om-ens  referring  to,  169,  175, 
176;    foundation    stone    of, 

295 

Nebo,  38,  96,  103,  105,  123, 
125,  136,  242,  250,  269,  272, 
326,  329;  shrines  to  other 
gods  in  his  temple,  48;  son 
of  Marduk,  57,  95,  97,  271; 
worship  weakened  by  Zoroas- 
trianism,  60;  patron  deity 
of  Borsippa,  94,  340  seq.; 
shrine  at  Babylon,  95 ;  count- 
erpart of  Ea,  95  seq.; 
receives  attributes  of  Mar- 
duk, 97;  as  creator,  98;  rank 
in  pantheon,  99;  god  of 
wisdom,  95  seq.,  112,  227; 
identified  with  Mercury,  226, 
232;  tenth  month  associated 
with,  237  seq.;  New  Year's 
procession,  341 

Nebo-akh-iddin,  381 

Nebo-nur-ili,  381,  383 

Nebopaliddin,  King  of  Baby- 
lon, 295 

Nebuchadnezzar  II.,  King  of 
Babylon,  56,  58,  59,  99,  269, 
271,295,324 

Neo-Babylonian,  empire,  99, 
109,  164,  252;  empire,  de- 
cline, 59;  dynasty,  45 

Nergal,  38,  102,  105,  123,  132, 
174,271,326,  369,  372,  373; 
patron  deity  of  Cuthah,  15, 
18;  shrine  at  Nippur,  18,  19; 
cult    in    Assyria,    53;    solar 


464 


Index 


Nergal — Continued 

deity  of  Uruk,  80;  type  of 
sun's  destructive  power,  107, 
108,  no,  134,  182;  head  of 
pantheon    of    lower    world, 

107,  224,  225,  310,  354,  368; 
identified  with  planet  Mars, 

108,  224,  232;  "god"  in 
omen  tablets  =  Nergal,  185; 
ninth  month  associated  with, 
237;  usurps  rule  of  nether 
world,  369 

Nether  world,  128,  224  seq.; 
special  pantheon  for,  107, 
363,  368,  seq.;  as  home  of 
demons,  310,  354;  names  of: 
Cuthah,  107,  354;  E-Kur- 
Bad,  354;  Irkallu,  333,  354; 
Arahi,  usual  name,  348,  354; 
Ishtar's  descent,  347,  370 
seq.;  Tammuz's  descent,  347 
seq.;  character  of,  353,  356, 
373;  life  in,  353,  358,  371; 
parallel  to  Hades,  355;  Ner- 
gal usurps  rule,  369.  See 
Life  after  death,  Island  of 
the  Blest 

New  Year's  day,  see  Festivals 

Nikbadu',  380 

Nile,  46 

Nimroud  =  Calah,  q.v. 

Nineveh,  36,  47,  61,  137,  246, 
283,  293,  294,  410;  fall  of,  43, 
45;  excavations,  47;  intel- 
lectual and  religious  centre, 
50;  various  cults  in,  53; 
Ishtar  of,  128;  later  capital 
of  Assyria,  273 

Nin-gal,  consort  of  Sin,  125 

Ningirsu,  patron  deity  of  La- 
gash,  15,  18,  164,  204,  271, 
277;  shrine  at  Nippur,  18, 
19;  "the  lord  of  Girsu,"  80; 
sun-god,  15,  106,  340 

Ningishzida,  solar  deity,  fifth 
month  associated  with,  237; 
=  Tammuz,  347 ;  consort  of 
Tammuz,  366,  367 

Ninib,  53,  79,  81,  85,  87,  100, 


102,  105,  119,  123,  125,  132, 
174,  242,  271 ;  solar  deity,  38, 
77,78,80,83,86,92,98,  loi, 
106,  no,  118,  122,  128,  130, 
134;  cult  in  Assyria,  53;  = 
En-Mashtu,  possibly  Amor- 
itish,  76;  replaced  by  Enlil, 
76,  84,94,  loi,  224;  son  of 
Enlil,  76,  77;  former  head  of 
pantheon,  78  seq.,  106,  224; 
identified  with  other  deities, 
80;  as  creator,  98;  typifying 
sun  of  springtime,  no,  340; 
identified  with  Saturn,  no 
seq.,  224,232;  fourth  month 
associated  with,  237 

Nin-Kharsag,  15;  =  Ninlil,  19, 
69 

Ninlil,  consort  of  Enlil,  19,  124, 
218,  271,  294;  consort  of 
Marduk,  19;=  Nin-Kharsag, 
19,  69;  as  an  Ishtar,  133 

Nippur,  early  stronghold  of 
Sumerians,  11,21,69,85,282; 
excavations,  13,  281,  282; 
seat  of  worship  of  Enlil,  15, 
18,  36,  38,  40,  100,  218,  271, 
277;  old  religious  centre,  18, 
39,  48,  68,  321;  shrines  of 
other  gods  at,  18  seq.,  271; 
yields  to  Sargon,  23;  yields 
to  Sennacherib,  45;  part  of 
Ashurbanapal's  library  from, 
49;  as  burial  place,  294 

Nirvina,  352 

Noah,  289,  364,  416 

Nubta,  381,  383 

Nlir-Sin,  380 

Nusku,  fire-god,  97,  123,  271, 
304,  306,  312;  =  Ennugi,  88. 
See  Purification 


Cannes  =  Ea,  89 

Offerings,  332,  336,  340,  342; 
votive,  16,  18,  282,  294;  to 
demons,  316,  317;  to  gods  in 
exorcism    and    purification, 


Index 


465 


OflFerlngs — Continued 

318;  to  dead,  359,  362.   See 
Libation,  Sacrifice 

Old  Testament,  see  Hebrews 

Olympus,  283 

Omens,  omen-series  in  Ashur- 
banapal's  library,  49,  169; 
and  astronomy,  58;  of  Mars, 
108,  225;  astrological,  120, 
219;  astrological,  interpre- 
tation of,  210,  214,  219  seq., 
221,  227;  "liver"  omens,  167 
seq. ; ' '  liver  "omens,  Shamash 
and  Adad  invoked,  120;  of 
Venus,  129;  system  of  in- 
terpretation, 169  seq.,  175 
seq.,  233  seq.,  237,  239  seq., 
245  seq.',  of  Sargon  and 
Naram-Sin,  169,1755^2., 218; 
omen  literature,  169,  iT^seq., 
180  seq.,  181  seq.,  200,  202 
seq.,  220  seq.,  278,  296,  297; 
of  moon,  213,  214,  249;  of 
various  months,  214,  221; 
of  eclipses,  216;  of  Jupiter, 
219;  of  Venus,  220  seq.-,  of 
Mercury,  227;  of  ecliptic, 
229;  Anu-Enlil  series,  246 
seq.;  as  legal  decisions,  275 

Opis,  yields  to  Sargon,  23 

Oracles,  and  jurisprudence,  58 

Orion,  see  Stars 

Osiris,  350,  363 


Palace,  ^kallu  =  hekhal,  268. 
See  Architecture 

Palestine,  22,  26,  28,  29,  30,  44, 
46,  56,  69,  120,  261,  289, 
292,  349,  413 

Palmistry,  see  Hepatoscopy 

Pantheon,  early  Babylonian, 
14,  15,  76,  99;  position  of 
gods  conditioned  by  import- 
ance of  city,  15;  head  of, 
see  Enlil,  Marduk,  Ninib; 
Amoritish  influence  in,  25 
seq.',  after  Hammurapi,   36 


seq.',  selective  process,  14, 
63  seq.',  systematised  pan- 
theon, 81,  84,  116,  224,  232, 
341;  factors  in  forming,  91; 
of  lower  world,  107,  363;  see 
Nether  world;  Shamash  dis- 
places Ninib,  no;  original 
character  of  gods  set  aside  in 
identification  with  planets, 
217;  gods  assigned  to  certain 
months,  237  seq. 

Pa-te-si,  '*  qKiqV  =  ishakku,  21 

Paul  IV.,  Pope,  262 

Payne,  376 

Peiser,  F.  E.,  277,  378,  380 

Perrot,  G.,  75 

Perry,  E.  G.,  339 

Persia,  control  of  Euphrates 
Valley,  59,  109;  influence 
on  Babylonian  culture  and 
religion,  60  seq.,  200;  Sacaea 
festival,  350 

Persian  Gulf,  37,  66,  67,  87 

Persians,  213;  influence  on 
Babylonian  religion  ,252,253; 
influence  on  Babylonian  as- 
trology, 260 

Peters,  John  P.,  13,  14,  108, 
281,  361 

Petrie,  Flinders  W.  M.,  29,  268 

Pharos,  291 

Phoenicia,  46;  mother-goddess, 
131;  Tammuz  myth  in,  349 

Phonetic  writing,  see  Cunei- 
form script 

Phrygia,  141 ;  Attis-Cybele 
story,  350 

Piacenza,  192 

Pictorial  writing,  9.  See  Cunei- 
form writing 

Pinches,  Theophilus  G.,  102 

Planets,  Jupiter  and  Venus 
first  differentiated,  217;  iden- 
tification of  gods  with  plan- 
ets,^ 217;  Lu-Bat,  general 
designation,  221,  224,  226; 
Lu-Bat,  etymology,  222 ; 
early  difficulty  in  differentiat- 
ing, 222;  representing  coun- 


466 


Index 


Planets — Continued 

tries,    236;    color    of,    287. 
See  Stars,  Zodiac 

Pleiades,  see  Stars 

Pliny,  197 

Pluto,  224 

Poebel,  Arno,  33 

Polyaenus,  199 

Polytheism,  replaced  by  Zoro- 
astrianism,  59  seg. 

Portia,  396 

Prayers,  242,  389;  collections 
of,  49;  prompted  by  longing 
to  penetrate  future,  143;  in 
divination  ceremonial,  165, 
166;  attached  to  incantation 
rites,  301,  303  seq.;  at 
disappearance  of  moon, 
333  seq.;  at  appearance 
of  moon,  335  seq.  See 
Lamentation 

Priests,  various  functions,  58, 
273  seq.;  as  judges,  58,  iii, 
275  seq.;  of  Babylon  favour 
Cyrus,  59,  109;  activity  in 
evolving  theological  system, 
81  seq.,  90,  91,  116;  of  Baby- 
lon and  Sippar,  rivalry,  109; 
asdiviners.MriJ,  I58^eg.,  162 
seq.,  164,  175,  176,  180,  185, 
202  seq.,  207;  hdrii  as  liver 
diviner,  162,  163,  164,  165, 
167,  169,  172,  177,  186,  201, 
202,  204,  205,  210;  hdril  as 
originator  of  study  of  ana- 
tomy, 190;  hdril  as  originator 
of  study  of  astronomy,  190; 
hdrH  as  astrologer,  210,  230, 
231,  237,  241,  246,  247,  257, 
259,  260,  261,  263,  298;  as 
astronomers,  253;  hdrH 
priests  as  soothsayers,  259; 
of  Jahweh,  kohanim,  261; 
see  also  Levites;  kings  as, 
269;  dshipu,  "magician," 
302,  317;  mashmashu,  "puri- 
fier," 317;  purification  cere- 
monies for,  320  seq.;  chant 
to   new   moon,    336;    chant 


to  sun,   339;  ahkallu,    387; 

ethical  teachings,  389  seq. 
Priestesses,  273,  349;  of  Ishtar 

prototypes  of   Houris,    138; 

as  vestal  virgins,  273,  402 
Prince,  J.  D.,  297,  346 
Procyon,  see  Stars 
Prometheus,  152,  195,  353 
Proserpine,  368 
Protospatharius,     Theophilus, 

Purification,  from  disease,  89; 
-rites,  91,  305,  seq.;  methods 
and  means,  312  seq.;  of 
houses,  318  seq.;  Penta- 
teuchal  ritual ,  3 1 9 ;  in  Priestly 
Code,  319;  development 
from  taboo,  306,  319;  -cere- 
monies in  connection  with 
Lamentation  ritual,  320.  See 
Incantation,  Exorcism 


Radau,  Hugo,  no 

Ramman,  see  A  dad 

Rassam,  H.,  47 

Rawlinson,  Henry  C,  74,  77, 
I35»  I75>  201,  205,  238,  269, 
273,  283,  287,  386 

Regulus,  see  Stars 

Reisner,  George,  70,  72,  77,  80 

Rim-Sin,  King  of  Larsa,  33 

Rituals,  242,  296.  See  Lamen- 
tation rituals,  Incantation  rit- 
uals 

Rogers,  R.  W.,  109 

Romans,  hepatoscopy  among, 
193  seq.,  195  seq.;  astrology 
among,  243,  259  seq.;  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem,  324; 
Tammuz- Adonis  myth,  350; 
Saturnalia,  350 

Rome,  4,  19,  141,  260 


Sabbath,  see  Shabbath 
Sabitu,  374 


Index 


467 


Sachau,  Eduard,  18 

Sacrifice,  171;  soul  of  victim 
identical  with  that  of  re- 
cipient god,  148;  idea  of 
tribute  secondary,  148;  ori- 
gin, 147  seq.;  ceremony,  166; 
performed  by  kings,  269;  in 
exorcism,  316;  in  purification 
of  house,  318 

Samarra,  minaret,  291 

Sanctuaries,  see  Temple 

Sarah,  399 

Sardanapalus,  see  Ashurbana- 
pal 

Sargon  of  Agade,  19,  21,  24,  25, 
30,  42,  43,  46,  54,  58,  86,  94, 
109,  113,  164,  166,  169,  176, 
218,  249,  293,  294,  356;  con- 
quests, 22  seq.',  conquest  of 
Elam,  22,  23;  fuller  name 
Shar-gani-sharri,^  22;  title, 
23;  omens  referring  to,  169, 
1755^5. 

Sargon  of  Assyria,  44,  46,  53, 
123,  386,  387 

Sarpanit,  consort  of  Marduk, 
125,  271,  340;  often  called 
Ishtar,  128,  134 

de  Sarzec,  Ernest,  13,  360 

Saturn,  identified  with  Ninib, 
no  seq.,  224;  the  "steady" 
Lu-Bat,  221  seq.',  as  "sun" 
223 

Saussaye,     Chantepie    de    la, 

315 
Sayce,  A.  H.,  51,  369 
Scheil,  Vincent,  23,   34,   271, 

336 
Schools,  see  Temple 
Schrader,  E.,  99,  134,  135,  359, 

360,  378,  386 
Sciences,  attached  to  religious 

beliefs,   58;  separated  from 

religion,    62;    sprung     from 

Ea,  89 
Scribes,  see  Priests 
Sculpture,     17;     Naram-Sin's 

monument,  23;  Assyrian,  54; 

Bulls,  75 


Seal  cylinders,  religious  designs, 
16,  113;  Hittite  influence,  29, 
140 

Seir,  Mt.,  73,  283,  285 

Semites,  earliest  settlements 
in  north  Babylonia,  5,  27; 
early  strongholds,  1 1 ;  home, 
12;  growing  prominence,  21; 
struggle  with  Sumerians,  25; 
spread  of  language  and  cul- 
ture, 3 1 ;  permanent  triumph 
over  Sumerians,  32;  mother- 
goddess  among,  131  seq.; 
contact  with  Hittites,  140; 
idea  of  sanctuary,  265  seq. 

Sennacherib,  king  of  Assyria, 
46,  53,  123,  386;  destruction 
of  Babylon,  44  seq. 

Shabbath  (Shabbathon),  338 

Shala,  consort  of  Adad,  125 

Shalmaneser  III.,  king  of  As- 
syria, 44,  123 

Shamash,  sun-god,  38,  48,  83, 
92,  105,  113,  118,  119,  122, 
123,  128,  132,  140,  212,  223, 
224,  226,  232,  242,  273,  303, 
307,  326,  334,  370,  372; 
patron  deity  of  Sippar,  19, 
22,  67,  III,  112,  269,  271, 
277,  294;  patron  deity  of 
Larsa,  67,  112;  shrine  at 
Nippur,  19;  cult  in  Assyria, 
53 ;  worship  weakened  by  Zo- 
roastrianism,  60 ;  =  Babbar, 
80,  106,  108;  general  desig- 
nation for  "sun,"  80,  no; 
"god  of  divination,"  96, 
120,  165,  167,  297;  as  judge, 
103,  III  seq.,  274,  304,  363, 
387.  389.  390;  =Ut,  106;  per- 
sonification of  beneficent 
power  of  sun,  109,  117;  be- 
comes paramount  sun-god, 
no;  position  in  pantheon, 
116;  as  "warrior,"  134; 
seventh  month  associated 
with,  237 

Shamash-shumukin,  niler  of 
Babylonia,  336,  359 


468 


Index 


Shar-gani-sharri,  see  Sargon  of 

Agade 
Sharrukin,  ruler  of  Kish,  22 
Shiite,  sect  of  Islam,  108 
Shinar  =  Sumer,    3;    home    of 

human  race,  4 
5Aip/M=  Incantation,  q.v. 
Shirpurla=Lagash,  q.v. 
Shukamuna,  Cassite  god,  103 
Shumer,  3.     See  Sumer 
Sibitti,    twelfth    month   asso- 
ciated with,  238 
Sin,  moon-god,  15,  38,  48,  67, 
103,  105,  123,  125,  140,  174, 
212,  232,  242,  269,  326,  370; 
patron  deity  of  Ur,  15,18,  67, 
112,    114,    269,    271,    339; 
patron  deity  of  Harran,  67, 

112,  113,  114,  166;  shrine 
at  Nippur,  18,  19;  cult  in 
Assyria,  53;  =  En-Zu,  "lord 
of  knowledge,"  112  seq.',  con- 
nection with  astrology,  113, 
115,  130,  211  5eg.;  =  Nannar, 

113,  114,  334,  337,  339;  as 
father  of  the  gods,  116,  130, 
212,  247;  head  of  astrological 
Triad,  116,  117;  position  in 
pantheon,  212;  third  month 
assigned  to,  237;  prayer  at 
disappearance  of  moon,  334 
seq.',  hymns  to,  336  seq.^  339 

Sinai,  69,  73,  283,  285 

Sippar,  35,  48,  59,  70,  269, 
283,  293,  296,  321,  326,  336, 
386,  387,  388;  early  strong- 
hold of  Semites,  11,  106; 
seat  of  Shamash  cult,  19,  22, 
67,  80,  81,  106,  108,  109, 
no,  III,  112,  120,  271,  277, 
294,  296;  brought  into  prom- 
inence by  Sargon,  22;  yields 
to  Sargon,  23;  taken  by 
Sennacherib,  45;  a  source  of 
Ashurbanapal's  library,  49; 
restoration,  56 

Sirdu,  mother  of  Tammuz,  346 

Sirion,  73 

Sirius,  see  Stars 


Slavery,  277,  403,  408 

Social  customs,  position  of  wo- 
man, 125  seq.    See  Marriage 

Sociological  conditions  as  fac- 
tor in  religion,  107 

Solomon,  267,  288,  292 

Sorcerers,  39,  91,  328;  incan- 
tation against,  299,  304  seq. ; 
methods  of  destroying,  314, 
316 

Soudinos,  199 

Soul,  attempts  to  localise,  148 
seq.',  of  victim  identified 
with  that  of  god,  148,  197; 
=  " breath,"  149;  located  in 
liver,  heart,  brain,  149  seq., 
154;  seat  of,  liver,  149  seq., 
I55»  196;  =liver,  151 

Stage-tower,  see  Zikkurat 

Stars  and  constellations,  227 
seq.;  omens  of,  227  seq.;  in 
zodiac,  229  seq. ;  representing 
countries,  236 

Steindorff,  Georg,  103 

Storm-god,  importance  in  Eu- 
phrates Valley,  64  seq.  See 
Adad,  Ea,  Enlil,  Jahweh, 
Teshub 

Strassmaier,  J.  N.,  231,  380 

Subartu=  Assyria,  22,  235; 
yields  to  Sargon,  22;  one  of 
"four  regions,"  24,  235  seq.; 
months  assigned  to  in  as- 
trological system,  219;  repre- 
sented by  division  of  moon, 
235,  239 

Sumer  =  southern  Babylonia,  3, 
22,  322;  culture  coloured  by 
that  of  Akkad,  31 

Sumer  and  Akkad,  as  geo- 
graphical terms,  3;  under 
sway  of  Sargon,  23;  "King 
of  Sumer  and  Akkad,"  24; 
united  by  Hammurapi  Code, 
35;  later  called  Babylonia, 
56 

Sumerian,  Question,  6-1 1; 
Inscriptions,  8;  bilingual 
texts,  279;   Sumerian  texts, 


Index 


469 


Sumerian — Continued 

297;  lamentations,  320; 
hymns  at  appearance  of 
new  moon,  336 

Sumerians  =  non-Semites,  4 ; 
ethnic  evidence,  7  seq.;  early- 
strongholds,  1 1 ;  struggle 
with  Akkadians,  11,  20  seq., 
24,  25;  origin,  12,  42,  69; 
successes  under  Dungi,  30; 
waning  supremacy,  31,  112; 
introduction  o  f  zikkurat, 
284 

Sun-god,  importance  in  Eu- 
phrates Valley,  64  seq.; 
two  phases  of  sun  and  sun- 
gods,  107  seq.;  of  spring, 
no,  128,  324,  340,  343,  366, 
415.  See  Anu,  Ashur,  Baal, 
Lugal-Marada,  Marduk, 
Nergal,  Ningirsu,  Nin- 
gishzida,  Ninth,  Shamash, 
Zu  bird. 

Susa,  34,  46;  capital  of  Elam, 

135 

Syllabary,  see  Cuneiform 
script 

Symbohc  rites,  39 

Syria,  12,  22,  26,  30,  120;  con- 
quered by  Nebuchadnezzar, 
56;  influence  on  Assyrian 
temple  architecture,  293 


Tabi-utul-Enlil,  legendary  king 

'  of  Nippur,  331 

Taboo,  63,  163,  306,  319,  320, 
401 

Tammuz,  354,  366,  367;  per- 
sonification of  springtime 
sun,  128,  324,  371;  myth 
and  festival  of,  128,  324, 
343  5eg.,37i;  =  Adonis,  324; 
=  Dumu-Zi  (-Abzu),  343  seq.; 
various  names,  346,  347;  as 
goddess,  347;  displaced  in 
official  cult  by  Ishtar,  348 
seq.;   =Adon,  349 


Tashmit,  334;  consort  of  Nebo, 
96,  125 

Telloh,  see  Lagasn 

Temple,  chief  edifice  in  city 
principaHty,  15;  smaller 
sanctuaries  near,  15,  18  seq., 
48,  270  seq.,  272;  business 
activity,  17,  277,  405;  ar- 
chives, 17,  47,  49,  96,  176, 
180,  188,  191,  273,  276,  282, 
296,  388;  landed  property, 
17,  277,  408;  schools,  20, 
47,  49,  82,  96,  102,  103,  113, 
140,  147,  191,  273,  282,  296, 
354;  schools,  instruction, 
278;  schools,  exercises,  169; 
schools,  text  books,  279; 
schools,  bilingual  texts,  279; 
schools,  part  in  develop- 
ment of  sciences,  58;  lib- 
raries, 49;  New  Year's 
ceremonies,  see  Festivals; 
prostitutes,  137  seq.;  devel- 
opment of,  265  seq.;  at 
Jerusalem  {hekhal  =  ikallu) , 
268,  288;  modelled  after 
Assyrian  temple,  292 ;  Caaba, 
"house  of  Allah,"  267; 
growth  into  temple-area, 
270,  272;  centre  of  intellect- 
ual life,  273  seq.,  278  seq.; 
seat  of  tribunal,  275;  varied 
acti\'ities,  276-280;  con- 
struction and  plan,  281  seq.; 
Assyrian, foreign  influence  on 
plan,  293;  foundation  stone, 
294;  dedicated  to  king,  356; 
E-Kur,  temple  of  Enlil  at 
Nippur,  18,  68,  285,  321, 
322,  335.  339;  as  general 
name  for  sanctuary,  18,  69; 
=  Aramaic  Igurd,  18;  as  place 
of  pilgrimage,  294;  E-Sagila, 
temple  of  Ea  at  Eridu,  93, 
269;  temple  of  Marduk  at 
Babylon,  93,  95,  269,  271, 
272,  274,  294,  296;  shrine 
of  Marduk  at  Borsippa,  95; 
E-Apsu,    temple    of    Ea    at 


4 


470 


Index 


Temple — Continued 

Eridu,  93;  E-zida,  temple  of 
Nebo  at  Borsippa,  95,  269, 
296;  shrine  of  Nebo  at 
Babylon,  95;  E-Babbar  = 
E-Barra,  temple  of  Shamash 
at  Sippar  and  Larsa,  108, 
269,  294  seq.',  Anu-Adad 
temple,  118,  292;  E-Anna, 
temple  of  Ishtar  in  Uruk, 
135, 269;  E-Khul-Khul,  tem- 
ple of  Sin  at  Ur,  269;  E-Nin- 
nu,  temple  of  Ningirsu  at 
Lagash,  271;  Ki-Uru,  part 
of  E-Kur,  322;  Dul-Azag, 
holy  chamber  of  E-Kur,  322 ; 
E-Gan-Nun-Makh,  perhaps 
temple  granary,  323 ;  E-kish- 
irgal,  temple  of  Sin  at  Ur, 
337.     See  Zikkurat 

Teraphim,  145 

T^rtu,  275 

Teshup,  Hittite  god,  69 

Thales,  255 

Thiersch,  A.,  291 

Thompson,   R.    C,   235,   310, 

311,  332 

Thureau-Dangin  F.,  81,  83, 
204,   269,   287 

Tiamat,  symbolising  primeval 
chaos,  40,  loi;  personifica- 
tion of  salt  ocean,  87 

Timaeus,   153,   156 

Tiglathpileser  L,  king  of  As- 
syria, 43,  123 

Tigris,  66,  87;  as  sacred  stream, 

313 

Tiresias,  355 

Tishpak,  perhaps  chief  Elam- 
ite  deity,  103 

Tityos,  353 

Tombs,    see   Burial 

To  rah,  equivalent  of  thtu,  275 

Totemism,  63 

Tower,  see  Babel,  Zikkurat. 

Triad  (Anu,  Ea,  Enlil),  36  seq., 
38,  81,  82,  90,  91,  116,  119, 
140,  228,  232,  247,  248;  Mar- 
duk,  as  director  of,  37;  in 


a  creation  myth,  85;  astro- 
logical. Sin,  Shamash,  Ish- 
tar, 116  seq.,  140;  Shamash, 
Adad,  Ishtar,  140;  Sin, 
Shamash,  Ishtar,   140 

Turkestan,  12 

Tylor,  E.  B.,   138 

U 

Umma,  early  stronghold  of 
Sumerians,  11,  360 

Ungnad,  A.,  28,  34,  277,  357, 
366,  370,  378 

Ur,  15,  18,  19,  20,  21,  24,  32, 
35,  48,  67,  283,  293,  296, 
321,  322,  326,  336,  337; 
centre  of  moon  cult,  15,  18, 
112,  114,  269,  271,  339; 
early  stronghold  of  Sumeri- 
ans, II,  21;  dynasty,  24, 
27,  30.  31.  168,  284,  356; 
overthrown,  31;  capital  of 
Sumerians,    24 

Ur-Engur,  founder  of  Ur  dy- 
nasty, 24,  25,  30 

Uruk,  18,  32,  46,  48,  80,  90, 
loi,  135,  287,  293,  296; 
early  stronghold  of  Sumeri- 
ans, II,  21;  yields  to  Sar- 
gon,  23,  45;  seat  of  Anu 
cult,  36,  40,  81,  82,  85,  86, 
106,  116,  119,  120,  121;  taken 
by  Sennacherib,  45 ;  a  source 
of  Ashurbanapal's  library, 
49;  Ishtar  of,  67,  127,  130, 
269;  temple  prostitutes,  137 
seq.;  Nan§,  of,  218;  home  of 
Gilgamesh,  358 

Urumush,  ruler  of  Kish,  168, 
184,  218 

Ushpia,  founder  of  oldest  sanc- 
tuary in  Ashur,  28 

Ut,  "day,"  =  Shamash,  106 

Ut-Napishtim,  88,  90,  355, 
357,  364,  416 


V 


Vanderburgh,  F.  A.,  297,  322 


Index 


471 


Venus,  75,  218,  221,  222,  228, 
413;  identified  with  Ishtar, 
115,  117,  129,  217;  omens 
of,  220  seq.,  229.  See  Plan- 
ets. 

Virolleaud,  Charles,  228 

Vitruvius,  256 

Vollmer,  350 

Votive  inscriptions,  293;  Adad 
mentioned  in,    117 

W 

Ward,  W.  Hayes,  16,  29,  52, 

114,  139  .      ,  . 

Water,  as  factor  m  determin- 
ing pantheon,  64  seq.\  deities 
66.    See  Purification,  Storm- 
god. 
Wellhausen,    Julius,    266,    325 
Winckler,   Hugo,  44,  413 
Witches,   91,   305;  method  of 

destroying,  314,  316 
Witchcraft,  391 
Woman  in  Cult,  313.  349 
Writing,  see  Cuneiform  Writ- 
ing. 


Xenophon,  410 

Xisuthros,   antediluvian  king, 

364 


Zag-Muk  =  spring  festival, 
see  Festival. 

Zakar,  god  of  dreams,  335 

Zamama,  103,  106;  patron 
deity  of  Kish,  80 

Zeller,  Ed.,  153 

Zeus,  69,  283 

Zikkurat,  at  Babylon  and 
Borsippa  rebuilt,  57;  ety- 
mology, 282;  construction 
282  seq.;  origin,  283  seq.\  as 
prototype  of  minaret,  284, 
291;  as  prototype  of  church 
steeples,  291  seq.-,  shrine  on, 
285;  purpose,  285  seq.',  287 
seq.',  in  astrological  sym- 
boHsm,  286  seq.',  as  "ladder" 
of  Jacob's  dream,  290;  al- 
ways separate  from  temple, 
292 

Zimmem,    Heinrich,    89,    201, 

297,  327,  338,  344.  347.  364 

Zion,  50,  285 

Zodiac,   229  seq. 

Zoroastrianism,  enters  Baby- 
lonia, 60,  200;  practically 
monotheistic,  60,  61,  252; 
dualism,  61 ;  fire  a  symbol  of 
life,  314 

Zu  bird,  personification  of  some 
solar  deity,  100 

Zu-En,  see  En-Zu 


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